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Empowering women to become more financially independent has been a hallmark of Lori Chillingworth's career as a small-business banker. Now she's on an even bigger mission: to help more women in Utah gain seats on corporate boards and compete for political office.
October 7 -
The Salt Lake City company is targeting an efficiency ratio more in line with other regional banks by closing branches and finding ways to boost revenue. Zions hopes its efforts will reduce annual pretax expenses by $120 million by 2017.
June 2 -
Regional banks did a much better job of expanding revenue than their megabank counterparts in the third quarter, but they had to spend more to do so and risk angering investors in a tight-margin environment.
October 15 -
Acquisitions would seem to be a logical course of action for regional banks struggling to cut costs and boost revenues in the low interest rate environment, but some bank chief executives are less open to the idea than others as comments by the heads of First Horizon and SunTrust demonstrate.
October 16
Zions Bancorp. in Salt Lake City posted stronger third-quarter earnings from lower costs and higher fee income.
The $58.4 billion-asset company said in a press release Monday that its earnings rose 6% from a year earlier, to $84.2 million, or 41 cents a share.
Net interest income rose by roughly 2%, to $425.4 million. Total loans, after taking into account the loan-loss allowance, increased by roughly 1%, to $39.5 billion. Noninterest income increased by more than 12%, to $130 million.
Noninterest expenses fell by almost 10%, to $396.1 million. The company announced a plan earlier this year to cut annual costs of $120 million by cutting staff, closing branches and consolidating charters. Zions said Monday that it was on track to reach half of those savings by the end of this year; the company expects to consolidate its seven charters on Dec. 31.
Zions increased its allowance for credit losses on its energy portfolio partly due to the substantial decline in energy prices during the third quarter. It recorded $17 million in energy loan net chargeoffs. This contributed to the loan-loss provision increasing to $18.3 million, compared with a $566,000 provision in the second quarter and a credit of $54.6 million a year earlier.
