LOANS: Pushing 10% Again In April; Can It Last?

Research evidence excerpt

LOANS: Pushing 10% Again In April; Can It Last?

Truist Securities

Equity Research Report May 17, 2026

FINANCIALS: Banks

LOANS: Pushing 10% Again In April; Can

It Last? Brian Foran Loan growth was 9.5% in April and deposits hit 9.0%, continuing a hot streak that has

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Brian.Foran@truist.com extended for several months. Can it last? For loans, we have a timely update at our

conference this week - so far the mood still seems pretty good, but there is no shortage

of issues being thrown at CEO confidence, and weekly data shows tentative signs of Chris Lian slowing to mid single digits as we move to May. On deposits, the weekly data is actually 212-303-4199

Chris.Lian@truist.com still accelerating. But current trends only do bank stocks a little good, investors are

increasingly nervous on a forward-looking basis - with Fed hikes and QT potentially

crimping near term, and stablecoin/AI potentially disrupting long term.

5 Page Document

Reasons for this report LOANS: April growth is pegged at 9.5% in the Fed H8 report released Friday. Any

given month can be choppy, but we are now four months into the year and the average

✓ Quick Reaction to Newsflow/Volatility has been a similar 9.3% over that period as shown below. Clearly the question from

here is whether it can continue - rates, war, oil.....we're throwing a lot at CEO and

consumer confidence. We will have a timely update from banks and BDCs executives

at our conference this week so stay tuned, but it is worth noting that in the weekly data

growth peaked in the front half of April, and if we annualize the last two weeks of April

and first week of May it is down to 5% - so worth watching.

Exhibit 1 - Loan growth 9.5% in April, the fourth straight

month of strong growth

Source: Fed H8, Truist Securities.