Huntington Bank’s 21% Growth Shows Main Street’s up for Borrowing

Vibecession? They’re not feeling it. 

Businesses that borrow from regional banks seem to think the economy’s just fine. Huntington Bancshares, the parent company of Ohio-based Huntington Bank, reported that its average commercial loans grew 12% from the prior quarter and 21% from a year ago during the last three months of 2025. The bank expects net interest income — the difference between how much money it generates from interest-bearing assets like loans, and how much it has to pay to depositors — to climb between 10% and 13% to a record high this year.

“Our focus for 2026 remains on driving strong organic growth,” Huntington CEO Steve Steinou said in a statement. “We entered the year with excellent momentum and our backlogs and pipeline are robust.”

Regional Banks Report 

Regional banks operate closer to Main Street than financial behemoths like JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, so they can offer insight into how comfortable small- and medium-sized businesses are running up debt to invest in expansion. They also tend to be more sensitive to the economy and interest rates than their larger peers.

“Regional banks’ net interest income will face some headwinds in 2026 from two or three rate cuts from the Fed,” Morningstar equity analyst Maoyuan Chen said in a markets brief earlier this week, adding that banks’ growth will depend on loan volume. “We currently forecast around 3-4% growth, but we could see bank lending growing faster from more commercial real estate loan growth, a headwind in the past three years, or higher commercial lending growth from a pickup in middle-market M&A deal activity.” 

As for now, Huntington isn’t the only regional bank with good news on the earnings front: 

• Cincinnati-headquartered Fifth Third reported the “highest quarterly commercial loan production in over three years, driven by investments in middle market sales force and corporate banking expertise” in the fourth quarter. 
• KeyCorp, the parent company of Cleveland-based KeyBank, reported that net interest income grew 15% year-over-year in the fourth quarter. 

Buying Opportunity: Devin Ryan, senior research analyst at Citizens, recently told CNBC that his firm sees regional bank stocks as a buying opportunity. Earlier this month, Erika Najarian, UBS senior equity research analyst and managing director, told the outlet that it’s time to rotate into some regional bank stocks, in part because of a rebound in loan growth.