Executives at the Minneapolis company said Wednesday that they expect earnings-per-share accretion to be higher than they previously anticipated. But their estimate for merger-related expenses also rose.

After focusing its de novo branching plans on the Carolinas in recent years, the Cincinnati-based bank is ready to shift its attention to Florida and — eventually — to Nashville and Atlanta.

The Dallas-based company is expanding in the Southeast and the Mountain West, and overhauling its digital systems, as part of a plan that executives say will pay off over a two- to five-year period.

The Federal Reserve terminated a 2016 agreement with the Industrial Bank of Korea and its New York branch for processing more than $1 billion in sanction-violating transactions.

The bank will apply the company's AI first to its risk models, an HR avatar and a metaverse presence.

The bank looked within its own ranks to find its next chief credit officer and to fill the newly created chief banking officer position. It continues a search for its next finance chief following a spate of departures.