KEYCORP /NEW/

Liquidity risk, which is inherent in the banking industry, is measured by our ability to accommodate liability maturities and deposit withdrawals, meet contractual obligations, and fund new business opportunities at a reasonable cost, in a timely manner, and without adverse consequences. Liquidity management involves maintaining sufficient and diverse sources of funding to accommodate planned, as well as unanticipated, changes in cash flows of assets and liabilities under both normal and adverse conditions.

Governance structure

We manage liquidity for all of our affiliates on a consolidated basis. This approach considers the funding sources available to each entity, as well as each entity’s capacity to manage through adverse conditions.

The management of consolidated liquidity risk is centralized within Corporate Treasury. Oversight and governance is provided by the Board, the ALCO, the TROC, and the Chief Risk Officer. The Asset Liability Management Policy provides the framework for the oversight and management of liquidity risk and is administered by the ALCO. The Corporate Treasury Oversight group within MTRM, as the second line of defense, provides additional oversight. Our current liquidity risk management practices are in compliance with the Federal Reserve Board’s Enhanced Prudential Standards.

These committees mentioned above regularly review liquidity and funding summaries, liquidity trends, peer comparisons, variance analyses, liquidity projections, internal liquidity stress tests, and goal tracking reports. The reviews generate a discussion of positions, trends, and directives on liquidity risk and shape a number of our decisions. When liquidity pressure is elevated, positions are monitored more closely and reporting is more intensive. To ensure that emerging issues are identified, we monitor an extensive set of systemic and idiosyncratic early warning indicators daily.

Factors affecting liquidity

Our liquidity could be adversely affected by both direct and indirect events. An example of a direct event would be a downgrade in our credit ratings by a rating agency. Examples of indirect events (events unrelated to us) that could impair our access to liquidity would be an act of terrorism or war, natural disasters, global pandemics, political events, or the default or bankruptcy of a major corporation, mutual fund, or hedge fund. Similarly, market speculation, or rumors about us or the banking industry in general, may adversely affect the cost and availability of normal funding sources.

Our credit ratings and rating agency outlooks at December 31, 2025, are shown in Figure 27. While we believe these credit ratings, under normal conditions in the capital markets, will enable KeyCorp or KeyBank to issue fixed income securities to investors, downgrades in our credit ratings could increase our cost of funds, trigger additional collateral or funding requirements, and decrease the number of investors and counterparties willing to lend to us.

Figure 27. Credit Ratings

(a)P-1 rating assigned by Moody’s is specific to KeyBank’s short-term bank deposit ratings. F1 assigned by Fitch Ratings, Inc. is specific to KeyBank’s short-term deposit ratings.

Managing liquidity risk

Most of our liquidity risk is derived from our business model, which involves taking in deposits, many of which can be withdrawn at any time, and lending them out in the form of illiquid loan assets. The assessments of liquidity risk are measured under the assumption of normal operating conditions as well as under stressed environments. We manage these exposures in accordance with our risk appetite, and within Board-approved policy limits.

We regularly monitor our liquidity position and funding sources and measure our capacity to obtain funds in a variety of hypothetical scenarios in an effort to maintain an appropriate mix of available and affordable funding. In the normal course of business, we perform a monthly internal liquidity stress test at the consolidated KeyCorp level. From time to time, we may conduct internal liquidity stress tests more frequently, and use assumptions to reflect the changed market environment. Our testing incorporates estimates for loan and deposit lives based on our historical studies. Internal liquidity stress tests analyze potential liquidity scenarios under various funding constraints and time periods. Ultimately, they determine the periodic effects that major direct and indirect events would have on our access to funding markets and our ability to fund our normal operations. To compensate for the effect of these assumed liquidity pressures, we consider alternative sources of liquidity and maturities over different time periods to project how funding needs would be managed.

Our primary source of funding for KeyBank is customer deposits resulting in a consolidated loan-to-deposit ratio of 72.5% as of December 31, 2025. If the cash flows needed to support operating and investing activities are not satisfied by deposit balances, we rely on wholesale funding or on-balance sheet liquid reserves. Additionally, excess cash generated by operating, investing, and deposit-gathering activities may be used to repay outstanding debt or invest in liquid assets.

We maintain a Contingency Funding Plan that outlines the process for addressing a liquidity crisis. As part of the plan, we maintain on-balance sheet liquid reserves referred to as our liquid asset portfolio, which consists of high quality liquid assets. During a stress period, that reserve could be used as a source of funding to provide time to develop and execute a longer-term strategy. Figure 28 shows our available contingent liquidity at December 31, 2025 and December 31, 2024. As of December 31, 2025, our secured term borrowings were $810 million, a decrease of $519 million compared to December 31, 2024 due to a reduction in FHLB borrowings.

Figure 28. Available Contingent Liquidity

Long-term liquidity strategy

Our long-term liquidity strategy is to be predominantly funded by core deposits. However, we may use wholesale funds to sustain an adequate liquid asset portfolio, meet daily cash demands, and allow management flexibility to execute business initiatives. Key’s client-based relationship strategy provides for a strong core deposit base that, in conjunction with intermediate and long-term wholesale funds managed to a diversified maturity structure and investor base, supports our liquidity risk management strategy. We use the loan-to-deposit ratio as a metric to monitor these strategies. Our target loan-to-deposit ratio is around 80% (at December 31, 2025, our loan-to-deposit ratio was 72.5%), which we calculate as the sum of total loans, loans held for sale, and nonsecuritized discontinued loans divided by deposits.

Liquidity programs

We have several liquidity programs that are designed to enable KeyCorp and KeyBank to raise funds in the public and private debt markets. The proceeds from most of these programs can be used for general corporate purposes, including acquisitions. These liquidity programs are reviewed from time to time by the Board and are renewed and replaced as necessary. There are no restrictive financial covenants in any of these programs.

KeyCorp maintains a Medium-Term Note Program that permits KeyCorp to issue notes with original maturities of nine months or more. At December 31, 2025, KeyCorp had $13.3 billion available for issuance under the Medium-Term Note Program.

Under its Bank Note Program, KeyBank may issue up to $20 billion of notes. At December 31, 2025, there was $20.0 billion available for issuance under the KeyBank Bank Note Program.

Liquidity for KeyCorp

The primary sources of liquidity for KeyCorp are dividends from KeyBank and the proceeds from the issuance of debt and capital securities. KeyCorp has sufficient liquidity when it can service its debt; support customary corporate operations and activities (including acquisitions); support occasional guarantees of subsidiaries’ obligations in transactions with third parties at a reasonable cost, in a timely manner, and without adverse consequences; and fund capital distributions in the form of dividends and share buybacks.

We use a parent cash coverage months metric as the primary measure to assess parent company liquidity. The parent cash coverage months metric measures the number of months into the future where projected obligations can be met with the current quantity of liquidity. We generally issue term debt to supplement dividends from KeyBank to manage our liquidity position at or above our targeted levels. The parent company generally maintains cash and short-term investments in an amount sufficient to meet projected debt maturities and dividends for the next 24 months. At December 31, 2025, KeyCorp held $4.9 billion in cash and short-term investments, which we projected to be sufficient to meet our projected obligations, including the repayment of our maturing debt obligations for the periods prescribed by our risk tolerance.

Typically, KeyCorp meets its liquidity requirements through regular dividends from KeyBank, supplemented with the proceeds from term debt issuances. Federal banking law limits the amount of capital distributions that a bank can make to its holding company without prior regulatory approval. A national bank’s dividend-paying capacity is affected by several factors, including net profits (as defined by statute) for the two previous calendar years and for the current year, up to the date of dividend declaration. During 2025, KeyBank paid $1.4 billion in cash dividends to KeyCorp, and during the fourth quarter of 2025, KeyBank paid $525 million in cash dividends to KeyCorp. At December 31, 2025, KeyBank had $783 million in regulatory capacity to pay any dividends to KeyCorp without prior regulatory approval.

Our liquidity position and recent activity

Our liquid asset portfolio, which includes overnight and short-term investments, as well as unencumbered, high quality liquid securities held as protection against a range of potential liquidity stress scenarios, continues to exceed the amount that we estimate would be necessary to manage through an adverse liquidity event by providing sufficient time to develop and execute a longer-term solution.

On December 29, 2025 all of the KeyBank outstanding 4.700% Fixed Rate Senior Bank Notes due January 26, 2026 were called at a redemption price equal to 100% of the outstanding principal amount of the Senior Bank Notes plus accrued and unpaid interest to, but excluding, the redemption date.

In addition, on January 28, 2026, also under the Medium-Term Note Program, KeyCorp issued $750 million of 5.305% Fixed-to-Floating Rate Senior Notes due January 28, 2037.

From time to time, KeyCorp or KeyBank may seek to retire, repurchase, or exchange outstanding debt, capital securities, preferred shares, or common shares through cash purchase, privately negotiated transactions or other means. Additional information on repurchases of Common Shares by KeyCorp is included in Part II, Item 5. Market for the Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities of this report. Such transactions depend on prevailing market conditions, our liquidity and capital requirements, contractual restrictions, regulatory requirements, and other factors. The amounts involved may be material, individually or collectively.

The Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows summarize our sources and uses of cash by type of activity for the years ended December 31, 2025, and December 31, 2024.