FIRST HORIZON CORP
For the period ended Mar 31, 2026. Filed May 7, 2026.
View on SEC.govAbout this filing
A company's report for each of its first three quarters. The financial statements are not audited. It shows how the business has moved since the last annual report, and what management says changed.
Mar 31, 2026 · Filed May 7, 2026
Extracted filing text, with the paragraph anchors used by the comparison.
See the whole filing, with its images and exhibitsContents
Market Uncertainties and Prospective Trends
FHN’s future results could be affected both positively and negatively by several known trends. Key among those are changes in the U.S. and global economy and outlook, government actions affecting interest rates, and government actions and proposals which could have positive or negative impacts on the economy at large or on certain businesses, industries, or sectors, including changes in fiscal policy and changes in trade policy, such as the imposition of tariffs and related retaliatory responses. Additional risks relate to political uncertainty,
changes in federal policies (including those publicly discussed, formally proposed, or recently implemented) and the potential impacts of those changes on our businesses and clients, and the success or failure of FHN’s strategic initiatives.
In addition to trends and events noted elsewhere in this MD&A, FHN believes the following trends and events are noteworthy at this time.
Federal Reserve Policy, the Yield Curve, Recession, Fiscal & Trade Policy, Other Events
Federal Reserve and Rates
The Federal Reserve raised short-term rates several times in 2022 and 2023 to contain strong inflation which began in 2021 and peaked in 2022. The rise in short-term interest rates by the Federal Reserve in 2022 was both rapid and substantial, taking the overnight Fed Funds rate from 0.20% in March 2022 to 5.33% by the fall of 2023. As a result of Federal Reserve rate cuts of 50 basis points in September 2024 and cuts of 25 basis points in both
November and December of that year, the overnight Fed Funds fell back to 4.33% by the end of 2024. But despite the Federal Reserve's rapid and vigorous tightening of monetary policy in 2022 and 2023 and limited rate cuts in 2024, measures of inflation still generally remain higher than the Federal Reserve's stated goal of 2%.
In each of September, October, and December of 2025, the Federal Reserve announced 25 basis point cuts in the Fed Funds rate, lowering the target range to 3.50% –
| 89 | 1Q26 FORM 10-Q REPORT |
PART I, ITEM 2. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION & ANALYSIS (MD&A)
Table of Contents
3.75%, but in March 2026 the Federal Reserve decided to hold the target range steady. In its statement announcing its March decision to maintain the target range, the Federal Reserve noted that economic activity had been expanding at a solid pace and the unemployment rate had been little changed in recent months, but inflation remained somewhat elevated.
FHN continues to closely monitor economic developments and assess potential exposures. FHN cannot predict when or how much short-term rates will be changed, how market-driven long-term rates will behave, or how those actions may affect economic or business conditions or financial markets.
Yield Curve
Historically, the yield curve is usually upward sloping (higher rates for longer terms and lower rates for shorter terms). However, the yield curve can be relatively flat or inverted (downward sloping). Inversion normally is rare but has happened several times in the past, including most recently from the summer of 2022 until September 2024. Since the fall of 2024, the yield curve has continued to modestly steepen.
Yield curve flattening and inversion generally reduce the profit FHN can make from lending by compressing FHN's net interest margin, and also generally reduce FHN's revenues from its fixed income bond trading. Both of those impacts occurred from 2022 through 2024, with fluctuations. During each quarter of 2025, net interest margin consistently exceeded the level of the comparable quarter in 2024, as the yield curve maintained its more typical upward slope, while fixed income bond trading revenues fluctuated during the year due to changing market conditions, with revenue from bond trading and related activities showing improvement in the first, third and fourth quarters, but declining in the second quarter due to less favorable market conditions. While NIM for 2025 as a whole expanded as compared with 2024, quarterly results for 2025 varied with strong quarter-to-quarter expansions of NIM in the first and third quarters and small quarter-to-quarter declines in the second and fourth quarters.
FHN cannot predict whether these trends will continue.
Other Impacts on FHN of Rate Actions
Rate increases pushed home mortgage rates in the U.S. much higher in 2022 and 2023, reducing demand. FHN's direct mortgage lending and lending to mortgage companies saw business decline significantly in 2022 and 2023. Mortgage rates have modestly abated since 2023 and FHN's mortgage business has seen improvement, but rates have remained elevated. However, the negative impacts of these higher rates have been offset by gains in market share. Changes in interest rates and interest rate policy could continue to have a material impact on our mortgage lending and lending to mortgage companies.
Recession
The U.S. economy contracted (experienced negative growth) during the first two quarters of 2022, in both cases modestly. Although the occurrence of two consecutive quarters of contraction often coincides with recession, in 2022, it did not. The economy has expanded in each quarter since then, except for a slight decline in the first quarter of 2025 before expansion resumed in the second quarter of 2025. The expansion rate has varied without a sustained trend. Recession expectations have moderated significantly since 2023, but recession still remains possible.
Fiscal Policy
Fiscal policy (spending and taxation) directly affects U.S. government annual deficits or surpluses, along with the size and trajectory of the national debt. Fiscal policy often has a significant impact on the U.S. economy. The changes in the executive and legislative branches of government in 2025 have resulted in significant changes in U.S. fiscal policy, including through the enactment on July 4, 2025 of federal legislation commonly referred to as the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act." The legislation includes several provisions that may impact the timing and magnitude of certain tax deductions and tax credits. The accelerated federal tax deductions for bonus depreciation and research or experimental expenditures began to reduce FHN's federal tax liability starting in 2025. FHN does not expect a significant impact from provisions that sunset certain Section 48E Clean Electricity Tax Credits on its future financial results. Provisions limiting the deductibility of annual corporate charitable deductions to amounts in excess of 1% of taxable income may affect the timing and amount of charitable donations. Refer to the Income Taxes section of this MD&A for additional information regarding the impact of this legislation on FHN.
Trade Policy
In 2025, the U.S. government announced new tariffs on a variety of goods and services. Subsequently, in February 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the International Economic Powers Act ("IEEPA"), which the U.S. administration relied on to impose certain tariffs, does not authorize the administration to impose tariffs. In March 2026, the U.S. Court of International Trade ordered the U.S. Customs and Border Protection ("CBP") to process refunds of the IEEPA tariffs, although this order has been suspended while the CBP determines a refund process. In response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling mentioned above, the U.S. administration announced plans to implement new tariffs under alternative statutory authority. As of early May 2026, the full impact of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling and the administration's response; the timing, scope and duration of tariffs; and the timing, scope and duration of any retaliatory measures by foreign governments remains uncertain, as does the impact of tariffs on economic growth, inflation rates, and
| 90 | 1Q26 FORM 10-Q REPORT |
PART I, ITEM 2. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION & ANALYSIS (MD&A)
Table of Contents
employment rates. Any significant change in economic conditions related to tariffs could materially affect our financial condition and results of operations.
2023 Banking Crisis
In 2023, three large regional U.S. banks failed after sudden large deposit outflows. In the aftermath of these failures, bank investors and clients across the U.S. became more focused on deposit mix, funding risk management, and
other safety-soundness concerns. Most U.S. banks saw abrupt net outflows of deposits in the spring of 2023 following the failures. Most have since recouped those deposits, mainly by offering higher interest rates. In 2024, competition for deposits was quite intense. Increased competition for deposits continued in 2025 and first quarter 2026 and could continue throughout the remainder of 2026.
Other Regulatory Proposals
In 2023, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve and other U.S. banking regulators issued a proposal to implement the final components of the Basel III framework ("Basel III Endgame"), which, if implemented, would have created some new requirements to banks, like FHN, with assets over $50 billion, but also created significantly increased regulatory constraints and compliance costs on all U.S. banks with assets over $100 billion.
In March 2026, the U.S. banking agencies rescinded the 2023 proposal and issued a revised proposal to implement the Basel III Endgame, which would revise certain capital requirements, including risk-weighted asset calculations and the treatment of specific exposures. The 2026 proposal remains subject to a notice-and-comment period and is not yet finalized. FHN is currently evaluating the potential impact of these proposed changes on its regulatory capital ratios and overall capital management strategy.
Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Reporting Regimes
Regulatory Proposals
Several states have enacted or proposed statutes or regulations addressing climate-related issues. For example, in 2023, California enacted two laws which, taken together, will require most larger companies doing business in California to report annually their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to report biennially their climate-related financial risks and risk-mitigation measures. The California laws have been challenged in court and certain of those challenges remain pending.
In addition, in March 2024, the SEC adopted final rules which would require all U.S. companies with publicly-traded securities to report annually their Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions and related risk-management processes, and would include a related financial statement and audit requirement, among other things. There is considerable uncertainty as to whether these rules will be implemented as adopted, both because the SEC has suspended effectiveness of those rules while legal challenges are pending and because shifts in executive and legislative
branches of government could lead the SEC to withdraw or significantly alter those rules.
In March 2025, the SEC voted to end its defense of its climate disclosure rules in the pending legal action, but the SEC has not withdrawn or modified those rules nor has the legal challenge to those rules been dismissed. On September 12, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ordered the litigation to be held in abeyance until the SEC reconsiders its rules through formal notice-and-comment rulemaking or renews its defense of the rules.
Potential Business Impacts
Direct compliance costs related to the SEC's and California's GHG reporting regimes, if implemented, will include creating systems to measure or estimate and capture relevant data, staffing, and engagement of vendors, including a firm to provide required assurances (somewhat analogous to a financial statement auditor).
Market Growth and Weather Events
FHN's principal markets are in the southern and southeastern United States, including most of the major gulf coast markets and several markets on the southern Atlantic seacoast. Many of FHN's markets, both coastal and non-coastal, have experienced significant population growth over at least the past twenty years, outpacing the growth rate for the U.S. as a whole. That population growth generally has been accompanied by economic growth.
Many of FHN's fastest growing markets, including most significantly those in Florida, can be impacted significantly by hurricanes and other severe coastal weather events. As those markets grow, FHN's economic commitment to them grows, as does FHN's financial exposure to those events.
Especially since 2022, it has been widely reported that the economic costs of hurricane and other severe weather
| 91 | 1Q26 FORM 10-Q REPORT |
PART I, ITEM 2. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION & ANALYSIS (MD&A)
Table of Contents
events in the southeastern U.S. have been rising significantly.
This reported increase in casualty risks and costs is being reflected in property insurance practices which currently are in significant flux. The insurance industry and insurance regulators are being forced to revise their risk assessment and premium pricing policies in coastal and other impacted areas as loss experience has deviated from earlier predictions, sometimes substantially. In Florida, for example, some smaller carriers failed, some larger carriers left markets, and other carriers significantly increased the premiums of hurricane-related insurance, narrowed coverage, or both, resulting in numerous proposals for legislative and regulatory reform.
The availability, reliability, and cost of adequate property insurance is a significant concern for FHN as well as FHN's clients in affected markets. Instability in property insurance has made, and continues to make, FHN's business decisions more difficult. That instability increases FHN's risks of loan loss and business downturn.
More fundamentally, elevated insurance and casualty costs blunt a key factor driving growth in many of these high-growth markets: lower costs of living. If market growth slows, FHN's business could be impacted.
| 92 | 1Q26 FORM 10-Q REPORT |
The text of this filing, as the company filed it with the SEC, without its images or exhibits. This is not investment advice.