The banking landscape is in flux, and flux sometimes requires patience.
That was the news delivered on Thursday’s (April 17) first-quarter 2025 earnings call for Truist, where executives stressed to investors that digital and payments transformation doesn’t always need to be disruptive to be effective.
Sometimes, the best innovation is the one that compounds quietly. And for payments professionals and FinTech watchers, Truist’s subtle but deliberate shift toward next-gen treasury solutions, consumer loan velocity and digital client onboarding reads like a quiet blueprint for navigating this era of incremental innovation in banking.
Treasury management revenue saw double-digit growth year over year, driven by what Truist described as “continued payments momentum.” The bank also launched real-time payments capabilities during the quarter, signaling its commitment to remaining competitive in a space increasingly influenced by FedNow adoption, B2B digital transformation and embedded finance.
But investment in the payments business wasn’t just commercial. On the retail side, digital loan origination via the mobile app climbed 31% compared to last year, with Gen Z borrowers spiking 47%. That could be a telling signal in a market where digital lending has matured beyond the millennial hype cycle into something more infrastructure-like.
Read also: Arculus, Mastercard and Truist Explore Fraud and the Economy’s Three S’s
The Charlotte-based super-regional bank reported $1.2 billion in net income available to common shareholders for Q1 2025, or $0.87 per diluted share, representing a modest 7% improvement year over year but a 4% slip from Q4 2024.
Truist’s digital journey also accelerated through experience enhancements and performance marketing that drove a 13% jump in digital account sales and a 23% year-over-year increase in new-to-bank clients via digital channels. These clients now account for 40% of all new relationships — a crucial metric as banks seek cost-effective scale.
Truist’s bet on mobile distribution channels is now increasingly yielding dividends in both scale and efficiency. Truist’s digital clients now exceed 7.3 million, and more than 80% of all transactions occur in self-service channels. The company’s mobile app continues to be its cornerstone; 82% of all digital logins now happen via mobile, a figure that underscores how central mobile infrastructure has become to retail banking’s economics and brand engagement.
Adjusted noninterest expense fell 5.4% from the previous quarter, driven by cuts in professional fees, equipment spend and other discretionary categories. This cost control didn’t come at the expense of tech spending. Truist continued investing in risk infrastructure and digital capabilities — highlighting a subtle but important theme in modern banking: managing transformation within flat or even declining top-line environments.
Provision for credit losses was $458 million, a slight sequential decline, reflecting stable underwriting and modest credit deterioration.
Deposits increased by 0.6% on average, thanks to a 9.4% surge in time deposits — likely influenced by rate-sensitive behavior — as noninterest-bearing deposits declined 1.9%. Deposit costs came down 10 basis points to 1.79%, aided by repricing efforts in a gradually loosening rate environment.
At the same time, the ongoing macro uncertainties around global trade and the ripple effect of market turbulence has hurt Truist’s investment banking and trading income, executives noted.
Read more: Truist Blends Innovation With Operational Stability and Digital Efficiency
“Consumers today operate in what I call the three S’s of the economy: speed, simplicity, and safety,” Chris Ward, head of enterprise payments at Truist, told PYMNTS in a separate interview posted in February 2025. “People want to transact quickly and simply, and they need confirmation that the transaction was completed.”
Data from the recent PYMNTS Intelligence report, “The State of Digital Lending Readiness,” sheds light on the varying degrees to which banks are equipped to handle lending in the digital age.
While 70% of financial institutions report having mostly automated consumer lending, only around one-third have achieved similar automation for small and medium-sized business (SMB) lending.
