First Horizon CEO talks regional bank competition after earnings miss

After First Horizon posted an earnings miss Wednesday morning, the regional bank’s CEO Bryan Jordan told CNBC’s Jim Cramer there is stiff competition in the industry that could continue for the rest of the year.

“We’re seeing a tremendous amount of competition. It tends to be very aggressive for money market and CD deposit rates,” Jordan said. “We see a lot of specials in the marketplace, and what we experienced this quarter was a little bit of a shift in what we’d seen in previous quarters.”

Jordan continued, saying this competition “drove a little bit of an increase in costs,” as First Horizon matched rates for customers, raising the cost of deposits. But he said that his company “will continue to defend our customer base,” adding that he thinks about business in the long term, not on a quarter-to-quarter basis.

First Horizon is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, and has locations across 12 states, primarily in the southeast. By Wednesday’s close, First Horizon shares were down 5.79%.

According to Jordan, the remainder of the year may be “a bit of a dog fight” due to the uncertainty surrounding both the presidential election and the Federal Reserve’s decision regarding interest rates. He pointed out that the outcome of the election will affect regulation, taxation and competition in the economy. He added that it’s unclear when the Fed will cut rates and by how much they plan to do so.

“I think when those two questions get resolved, the economy ought to star to accelerate, loan demand ought to pick up a little bit,” he said. “But I do think we see optimistic reasons to feel good about ’25 and beyond.”