Huntington Bancshares is expanding into Texas, first in Dallas and then statewide. The bank will focus on middle-market commercial clients, those with revenues under $1 billion.
To lead the expansion, the $189 billion-asset Huntington has hired veteran Texas commercial banker Clint Bryant, who joined from the $28.4 billion-asset Texas Capital Bancshares. Bryant served as Dallas-based Texas Capital's market president for North Texas middle-market banking.
Bryant has devoted much of his effort so far on team building. Though he acknowledged recruiting in such a hotly competitive marketplace has been challenging, Huntington has done well out of the gate. The company has hired three bankers in the past month-and-a-half, Bryant said Thursday in an interview.
Clint Bryant, Texas market president for Huntington.
"We will soon have more, both in Dallas and around the state," Bryant said. "I feel confident about our ability to attract the talent we want to attract and the type of individuals that fit the culture Huntington has built since 1866."
Huntington's Texas plans call for an initial buildup in Dallas followed by a gradual statewide expansion. In December, Huntington disclosed plans to establish commercial banking teams throughout the Carolinas: In Charlotte; Raleigh-Durham; the Triad region of Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point in North Carolina; and in the upstate and coastal regions of South Carolina.
Both expansion announcements, in the Carolinas and Texas, followed CEO Steve Steinour's pledge to invest in growth initiatives, even as other banks look to downsize in the face of an uncertain economy.
As in the Carolina's, Huntington's Texas teams will focus on middle-market commercial clients, those with revenues under $1 billion, according to Bryant.
"Our mission is to bring our commercial banking expertise and capabilities to more clients throughout Texas and ultimately help their businesses thrive," Scott Kleinman, president of the bank's commercial banking arm, Huntington Commercial Bank, said Thursday in a press release. "Having an industry veteran like Clint at the helm will ensure we're meeting the unique needs of middle market companies."
According to a Feb. 6 survey of the Texas economy by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, the Lone Star State's economic growth is expected to outpace the national average in 2024. Gov. Greg Abbot's economic development office reported Texas added about 370,000 jobs between December 2022 and December 2023, with the overall workforce reaching a record 15.2 million.
"It's a very business-friendly environment," Bryant said. "There continues to be a lot of inflow in terms of companies, in terms of merger-and-acquisition activity. … That creates opportunity for a bank with the size and scale Huntington has to be relevant."
Given its positive trajectory, a number of banks have announced plans to expand in Texas in recent months. The $50.8 billion-asset Cullen/Frost Bankers, based in San Antonio, said in June 2023 that it would add 17 branches and 170 jobs in the Austin region by 2026. Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Group said last month it expects to concentrate much of its branch-building efforts in Texas, in Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, over the next five years.
The $562 billion-asset PNC announced in February that it plans to spend approximately $1 billion renovating about 1,200 branches and building about 100 new ones.
The Leawood, Kansas-based CrossFirst Bankshares, which entered the Dallas market in 2016, announced plans to expand to Fort Worth in March 2023. That move came 14 months after the $7.4 billion-asset CrossFirst hired David Fealon, himself a longtime Texas banker, to lead a statewide expansion.
Prior to his four-year stint at Texas Capital, Bryant served as head of the Southwest corporate banking group for Suntrust Robinson Humphrey from 2013 to 2020.
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