Jan 21 (Reuters) – Truist Financial reported a rise in fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday, helped by higher interest income and fees from its investment banking businesses.
Shares of the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank fell 2% in pre-market trading after it forecast a revenue drop in the first quarter of 2026 of between 2% and 3%.
Wall Street, on average, was expecting a 5.4% revenue jump during the period, according to estimates compiled by LSEG.
The U.S. economy has remained resilient despite tariff-led uncertainty, with analysts expecting loan growth to hold up through 2026 amid falling interest rates, fiscal stimulus and higher tax refunds.
Truist’s net interest income, the difference between the interest it pays on deposits and what it earns on loans, rose 3.1% to $3.7 billion in the quarter ended December 31 from a year ago.
Non-interest income rose to $1.55 billion in the quarter, compared with $1.47 billion a year earlier.
The bank reported a 28% rise in its investment banking and trading income. Peer Citizens Financial also reported higher capital markets fees on Wednesday.
Despite mounting geopolitical risks, bankers expect dealmaking to build on last year’s momentum, when a flurry of big-ticket transactions pushed global M&A activity past the $5.1 trillion mark.
Truist reported a profit of $1.29 billion, or $1.00 per share, in the quarter, compared with $1.22 billion, or 91 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.
Its shares gained more than 13.4% in 2025, lagging a 28.8% rise in the KBW Banking Index.
(Reporting by Ateev Bhandari in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
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