Fifth Third CEO on Comerica integration: So far, so good

• Key insight: Fifth Third is optimistic that its acquisition of Comerica will deliver even better results than it previously expected. But there’s still important work ahead, as the systems conversion is slated for Labor Day weekend.
• Supporting data: The company plans to deliver $360 million of net cost savings this year, and to reach an $850 million annual run rate by the fourth quarter.
• What’s at stake: Fifth Third is counting on retaining and growing its customer base across legacy Comerica markets.

UPDATE: This article has been updated with comments from an interview with Fifth Third CEO Tim Spence.

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Fifth Third Bancorp says there haven’t been any surprises as it has started to integrate Comerica after the blockbuster merger crossed the finish line earlier this year.

The Cincinnati-based bank said Friday it is on track to meet its previously outlined expectations for cost savings and data conversion as it folds Comerica into its systems. Fifth Third spent $635 million on the merger in the first quarter, which is about half of the bank’s expected merger-related costs for the full year.

CEO Tim Spence said during a Friday call with analysts that the bank’s integration of Comerica has continued “at an accelerated pace.” The company plans to deliver $360 million of net cost savings this year, and to reach an $850 million annual run rate by the fourth quarter.

“When it comes to these large transactions, the absence of any surprises is a positive,” Spence said. “So getting one quarter closer to the point where we’re operating on a single common platform is an important milestone unto itself. In terms of just the core integration, I think things have gone really well. There really haven’t been big surprises.”

The bank has completed its required risk-based process reviews and its data conversion strategy, Spence said. He added that the bank’s marketing and promotion efforts to retain and add customers in certain Comerica markets will likely pay off. Fifth Third expects the initial effort to generate about $1 billion of deposits across Texas, Arizona and California, Spence said.

The company’s push in the Southwest has, in many ways, mirrored its organic expansion strategy in the Southeast, where it started focusing growth in 2018.

A key difference is that in the Southwest, Fifth Third is relying on competitive savings products to retain and boost business. Spence said in an interview Friday that’s because customers can’t open deposit accounts digitally through Comerica, and legacy Comerica’s checking account product isn’t as strong as Fifth Third’s. So the bank has had to lean on competitive deposit-rate pricing than it has in the Southeast.

He said, though, that once the bank has completed the system conversion, Fifth Third can focus on household marketing, as opposed to deposit-weight marketing.

By 2030, the bank estimates that more than half of its retail footprint will be concentrated in the Southeast, Texas and Arizona.

Fifth Third also isn’t seeing elevated levels of employee attrition, Spence noted.

The deal, which closed Feb. 1, was the largest bank deal announced in 2025, valued at $10.9 billion when it was inked in October.

During the first quarter, Fifth Third logged diluted earnings per share of $0.15, down almost 80% from the same period last year. But most of the drop was related to previously expected costs from swallowing Comerica. On top of the merger-related expenses, the bank took a $63 million charge to build its allowance for credit losses from Comerica’s loan book.

The $297 billion-asset company reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.83 for the first quarter, excluding integration and one-off expenses, in line with consensus analyst estimates.

Fifth Third’s adjusted bottom line was $734 million, up 38% from the prior year, compared with a 73% annual drop in GAAP net income, to $128 million.

Revenue was $2.8 billion, up 33% from the previous year. Spence said the bank is “already building a strong pipeline of revenue synergies.”

Chief Financial Officer Bryan Preston told analysts that any revenue synergies the bank notches will help improve its outlook. When Fifth Third announced the deal, it forecast full-year earnings per share of $4.89 in 2027, which would mark a 39% jump from 2025. Preston said he’s confident the bank can maintain that trajectory.

“Obviously, 2027 is a long time away,” he said. “The environment, the rate environment and a lot of other things can change. But we certainly are more positive today about the opportunity in front of us, even though we were incredibly positive at the time of the acquisition.”

Spence said in an interview that the greatest commercial opportunities the bank has seen so far have been in capital markets, payments and specialty-lending products.

For example, Fifth Third acquired a floor-plan lending business for auto dealers with its purchase of Comerica. By leveraging the Cincinnati bank’s footprint, Spence said that legacy Comerica business now has the largest pipeline in its history.

But the integration work isn’t over yet.

“It’s very early days, so this is not by any stretch of the imagination a declaration of success,” Spence said. The bank is on track to convert all its systems over Labor Day weekend.

The technology conversion is the largest point of risk in the transaction, Spence said. It’s important that the bank not disrupt customers’ experiences, and there may be a learning curve as legacy Comerica users get used to Fifth Third’s technology.

Spence said in an interview that Fifth Third will run three or four mock conversions before Labor Day weekend to ensure all systems are operating properly, the first of which will be this month. Thus far, he said it doesn’t seem like there should be any issues. Fifth Third and legacy Comerica had similar data structures due to using many of the same core platforms, Spence said.

“The worst case scenario is you have a failed data conversion, and systems don’t come up, but you don’t go forward if you’re going to have that risk,” Spence said. “Therefore, the other thing that you spend a lot of time on is customer communication, to make sure that the first time they log into their account they know how to use it.”