European Banks Daily 14 May 2026

Research evidence excerpt

European Banks Daily 14 May 2026

o about 10% of loans over the

next couple of years as other portfolios grow faster and construction exposure runs off; 4) deposit

competition remains intense, amplified by some peers returning to asset growth, tempering

expected funding cost declines; 5) capital markets is largely at scale, while the bank is adding

capabilities in commercial payments and private bankers in wealth management; 6) revenue

synergies from Veritex/Cadence on track, driven by equipping legacy bankers with broader

products, larger balance sheet capacity, and superior digital capabilities; and 7) AI use cases

ramping with 60+ active workstreams and ~12 new ones entering the pipeline monthly.

Affirm: Investor Forum Takeaways - Reinforcing the Flywheel; Key Medium Term

Financial Targets Better than We Expected

Connor Allen (1-212) 270-2895

Yesterday, we attended Affirm’s Investor Forum and management dinner, where the tone was

confident and upbeat. The messaging reinforced Affirm’s familiar playbook: continue gaining

share at checkout, while scaling the D2C flywheel across the Affirm Card and Wallet

supplemented by international expansion, with the company framing Affirm Edge (debit

programs with FIS and Fiserv) and agentic as upside to targeted growth. Management

emphasized that Affirm’s network effects are taking hold, and as the company scales, growth is

getting easier not more challenging. This was evidenced by the company’s medium term growth

guidance, that was ahead of JPMe and buyside estimates (per our survey findings, more details

here), calling for faster growth at better economics than outlined three years ago at the last Forum.

We left the event feeling incrementally positive around Affirm’s underwriting advantage,