Huntington National Bank 2014 Annual Report Download - page 35

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Huntington enjoys a unique and advantaged position in the industry and our future is bright. We are focused on executing our
strategic plan, and we are very pleased with the results we are achieving. For the past several years we have invested in the company
at a time when most of the industry has been pulling back. We have expanded and optimized our retail distribution, both physical and
digital. We have invested in small business and commercial specialty lending verticals. We have added new products, such as our
consumer and commercial credit cards and our new business and consumer checking accounts. These represent just a handful of the
investments we have made. Our 2014 earnings reflected results from these investments. Yet significant opportunity remains as none of
these investments are mature. We have a strong outlook for the future.
Economy
We remain optimistic on the economy in our footprint as fundamentals look positive. Home prices are improving, and the recent
reduction in interest rates provides another refinance window. Automobile sales were very strong in 2014 and appear poised for
another great, if not even better, year in 2015. The state governments in our footprint are operating with surpluses, and most of the
municipalities are on solid footing. We have good momentum on the consumer side. Our loan pipeline remains stable, and customer
activity among our core small and middle market business customer base continues to trend favorably.
Legislative and Regulatory
A comprehensive discussion of legislative and regulatory matters affecting us can be found in the Regulatory Matters section
included in Item 1 of this Form 10-K.
2015 Expectations
As we move into 2015, customer activity is strong, pipelines are stable, and our balance sheet is well positioned. We built our
plan with an assumption of no change in interest rates and with the flexibility to quickly adjust to the evolving operating environment.
We remain committed to investing in the business, disciplined expense control, and delivering full-year positive operating leverage.
Excluding Significant Items and net MSR hedging activity, we expect to deliver positive operating leverage in 2015 with revenue
growth exceeding noninterest expense growth of 2-4%.
Overall, asset quality metrics are expected to remain near current levels, although moderate quarterly volatility also is expected,
given the absolute low level of problem assets and credit costs. We anticipate NCOs will remain within or below our long-term
normalized range of 35 to 55 basis points.
The effective tax rate for 2015 is expected to be in the range of 25% to 28%.