Fifth Third Bancorp recently reported fourth-quarter earnings that helped the company reach record profits for 2019, highlighted by skyrocketing mortgage origination gains.
The company posted profits of $734 million in the fourth quarter, up 61 percent from the previous year, while mortgage originations grew more than 60 percent after Fifth Third’s acquisition of MB Financial. For the year, Fifth Third posted $2.5 billion in profits, up 13.6 percent from 2018.
“Our fourth quarter and full year results were strong, reflecting the strength of our diversified revenue streams, our continued expense discipline, and our ability to achieve our targeted financial outcomes from the MB Financial acquisition,” Fifth Third Chairman, President and CEO Greg Carmichael said in a release.
Fifth Third totaled $3.8 billion in mortgage originations in the fourth quarter, up 138 percent from the fourth quarter of 2018. For the full year, the company had $11.7 billion in mortgages, a 62.5 percent increase from $7.2 billion in originations in 2018.
Carmichael will be a keynote speaker at the National Settlement Services Summit in Naples, Fla., from June 10-12. He is slated to discuss the digital transformation of banking.
On a conference call with analysts to discuss the company’s earnings, Carmichael took the opportunity to discuss some of Fifth Third’s future priorities, including digital investment.
“We will continue to focus on these priorities going forward, including: leveraging technology to accelerate our digital transformation; investing in talent, capabilities and process improvements to generate relationship growth and improve profitability; continue to expand our presence in select geographies, focusing on high-growth markets,” Carmichael said, according to a transcript of the call from Seeking Alpha.
He said the company’s geographic expansion, spurred by its 2019 purchase of MB Financial, would continue as well.
“We are investing in the Southeast footprint with better deposit growth trends, higher expected population growth and greater market vitality. And lastly, we are focused on maintaining our disciplined approach throughout the company,” he said, according to the Seeking Alpha transcript. “To that end, our capital allocation priorities are: organic balance sheet growth, fee-generating non-bank acquisitions, paying a strong dividend, and share repurchases. Bank acquisitions are not a priority.”