Say goodbye to SunTrust and BB&T: Our 4 takeaways as Truist merger hits the final weeks
Customers can wave goodbye to SunTrust and BB&T next month — after more than two years in transition, Truist is moving to complete its merger of those banks by then.
The Charlotte-based bank is also embracing hybrid work options, ditching certain fees and working to close about 400 more branches before the end of March.
CEO Bill Rogers and CFO Daryl Bible gave an update to investors on Truist’s fourth quarter earnings call Tuesday. Here’s the latest:
A ‘core conversion’ in just a couple weeks
Truist plans to complete its “core conversion” in February — meaning all BB&T and SunTrust customers will be converted to Truist digital platforms.
In the next two months, you’ll also see the two banks’ old red and blue signage switched out in favor of the new bank’s name and purple and white logo splashed across the Southeast.
Truist is nearly done launching its new digital and mobile banking experience, Bible said during the call with investors. According to the presentation, BB&T customers have already been converted to the new platform, and remaining SunTrust customers will follow in the next several weeks.
The switch to the bank’s new name across branches, office buildings and ATMs will result in more than 6,000 new Truist signs across the bank’s markets, Bible said during the call, “finally allowing us to serve as one brand for our clients.”
And a growing number of Truist customers use the bank’s digital features like mobile check deposits, which grew 13% from 2020 to last year, and transactions via digital payment provider Zelle, which were up 50% from 2020 to last year.
Hundreds more branch closures ahead
The bank is targeting 800 total branch closures by the end of March — and still has just under half that number to go, according to Tuesday’s presentation.
Truist previously announced 10 Charlotte-area locations that would be affected by the closures, part of post-merger plans to address overlaps in the former banks’ branch networks.
After February, BB&T and SunTrust customers will be able to visit any Truist branch.
The bank is cutting costs in other places too: headcount was down 12% as of the end of last year and non-branch real estate had shrunk by nearly 5 million net square feet. Truist is still on track to achieve net cost savings of $1.6 billion out of the merger, Bible said.
“The good news is that total merger costs will be cut approximately in half in 2022 compared to last year,” Rogers said. Merger-related expenses will drop off entirely by year’s end, he added.
Shrinking fees
Following similar moves from peers like Bank of America and Wells Fargo, Truist is eliminating some charges for customers: the bank will discontinue returned item fees, negative balance fees and overdraft protection transfer fees for all existing accounts in the coming months.
The bank is also launching two new checking accounts under the name Truist One Banking. The Truist One Checking Account will have no overdraft fees, a $100 negative balance buffer and an up-to-$750 line of credit.
The changes will shrink overdraft-related revenue by 60% over the next two years, Rogers said on the call.
Regulators have targeted banks’ overdraft fee practices in recent years, leading a number of them to shift their policies and offer accounts and services that help customers avoid such charges.
Flexible work ‘here to stay’, CEO says
Rogers said that Truist has implemented a “flexible work strategy” for employees that offered options for onsite, remote and hybrid work models.
“Hybrid and more flexible work are here to stay,” Rogers said. “‘I’ve learned the meaning and the power of intentional flexibility.”
Truist won’t abandon in-person work all together, the bank said Thursday.
Employees still do their best work when they can collaborate in-person, the bank said in a statement. At the same time, Truist wants to create “the best and most flexible work strategy” for its workers, it said.
Truist also reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday. Net income was $1.5 billion, up 24% from the same period last year.
“Once the (merger) integration is complete and all the systems have been converted, Truist will be a much simpler company to operate,” Bible told investors. That’ll help the bank provide better service to customers, he said.
This story was originally published January 21, 2022 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Say goodbye to SunTrust and BB&T: Our 4 takeaways as Truist merger hits the final weeks."
