Truist Financial (TFC) 2026年第三季度业绩电话会议：资产组合出售与ROTCE目标

核心要点

• Truist Financial Corporation (NYSE: TFC) 报告 2026 年第三季度归属于普通股股东的净利润为 6.84 亿美元，即稀释后每股收益 0.56 美元。剔除 RAC 出售及相关可供出售（AFS）证券组合调仓的影响，调整后每股收益为 1.16 美元，同比增长 12%。
• 调整后有形普通股股东权益回报率（ROTCE）达到 14.6%，较 2025 年第三季度提升 100 个基点。管理层重申其 ROTCE 目标，即 2027 年达到 15%，长期达到 16% 至 18%。
• 平均存款环比增长 1.4%，同比增长 3.6%；平均贷款环比下降 1.1% 至 3260 亿美元，原因在于 Truist 退出或减少了非核心及低回报贷款业务。
• Truist 完成了其 55 亿美元 RAC 汽车贷款组合的出售，并同意出售 77 亿美元的 LightStream 贷款。LightStream 交易预计将于 2026 年第四季度完成，并将产生约 8.5 亿美元（相当于 20 个基点）的核心一级资本（CET1）。
• 对于 2026 年第四季度，管理层预计营业收入约为 53.5 亿美元，净利息收入为 36.5 亿至 37.0 亿美元，报告的非利息支出环比增长 2.5%，净核销率为 45 个基点。
• 公司正在将资本和费用重新配置至网点、自动取款机（ATM）、技术、数字银行、支付、信用卡、资金管理以及面向客户的人才领域。更完整的战略和财务展望计划于 2027 年初发布。

关键财务数据

业务与运营表现

受股市良好表现支撑，财富管理收入环比增加 3200 万美元，达到创纪录的 4.07 亿美元。相比之下，投资银行和交易收入下降 2800 万美元，因为交易和并购活动的低迷抵消了股权和债务资本市场业务的强势表现。管理层还表示，市场波动将部分投资银行业务收入推迟到了本季度之后。

客户平均存款同比增长 160 亿美元。这一增长为减少经纪存款及其他短期借款提供了支撑。总平均借款较 2025 年第三季度减少 45 亿美元，即 6.6%。总存款成本环比上升 3 个基点至 1.59%。

在 Service Finance、Sheffield 以及住房抵押贷款的推动下，核心贷款余额环比增加 8 亿美元。但这一增长被战略性收缩、RAC 转入待售资产以及工商业（C&I）贷款余额下降所抵消。管理层将工商业贷款的下降归因于更严格的风控回报要求以及特定行业组合的高额提前还款。

Truist 完成了其 55 亿美元 RAC 组合的出售，获得净收益 52 亿美元。该交易使综合不良贷款减少了 28%，将预期年化净核销率降低了 10 个基点，并产生了约 10 亿美元（即 23 个基点）的核心一级资本（CET1）。

RAC 交易释放的资本被用于重组可供出售（AFS）证券组合。Truist 出售了 86 亿美元收益率较低的机构抵押贷款支持证券（Agency MBS），其账面收益率为 2.67%，久期为 5.8 年；随后购买了 72 亿美元的证券，实际收益率约为 5.6%，调整后久期为 2.3 年。

Truist 还同意以预计 72 亿美元的净收益出售 77 亿美元的 LightStream 贷款。管理层预计该交易将使年度综合净核销率减少约 7 个基点。所得资金预计将用于偿还批发性融资，而任何额外的 AFS 证券调仓将取决于交割时的市场状况。

管理层业绩指引

第四季度指引不包括出售 LightStream 及任何其他潜在战略举措的影响。净利息收入展望包含了因出售 RAC 导致的约 1.25 亿美元减少，以及已完成的 AFS 证券调仓带来的约 4000 万美元收益。

剔除出售 RAC 和 LightStream 的影响，管理层继续预计 2026 年平均贷款增长率为 3% 至 4%。管理层还预计 2026 全年商业贷款增长率为中单位数，调整后非利息收入增长约 10%。

风险与关注领域

Truist 正在减少对非核心、单一产品贷款业务的敞口，但在再投资和增长举措形成规模之前，这些退出将降低报告的贷款余额和净利息收入。管理层估计，在考虑资金用途之前，出售 LightStream 对全季度净利息收入的影响约为 9500 万美元。

商业贷款受到高额提前还款的影响，而投资银行业务收入仍面临市场波动和交易时机的影响。本季度工商业（C&I）不良贷款也有所增加，不过剔除 RAC 后整体信贷指标保持稳定。

投资计划需要妥善安排先后顺序。管理层表示，近期的制约因素不仅是资金，还有公司有效执行网点、技术和产品投资的能力。潜在的额外 AFS 证券调仓仍取决于交易交割情况和市场条件。

分析师问答要点

管理层表示，其战略审查涵盖每项业务、流程、运营和支出。各项活动必须支持 Truist 的战略、达到目标回报、保护银行或提供有意义的客户价值。该审查计划持续至年底，预计将在 2027 年初随第四季度业绩一同公布更多细节。

在费用方面，管理层预计成本轨迹不会发生“巨变”。首要任务是停止低价值活动，并将现有支出重新投入战略投资。这些投资包括网点翻新、自动取款机（ATM）、移动和数字银行、支付、信用卡、人工智能（AI）功能以及资金管理。

Truist 目前没有进入新零售市场的计划。其网点战略重点在于升级现有布局、填补网络空白以及增加主要支票账户客户关系。在批发银行业务方面，公司已增加了 40 多名商业中端市场客户经理，并在资金管理、外汇、利率、财富贷款、设备融资以及基于资产或资产支持的贷款领域看到了更多机会。

管理层表示，另有 170 亿至 180 亿美元的可供出售（AFS）证券可能会被纳入调仓范围，但尚未作出决定。未来任何调仓都将侧重于更短的久期和更高比例的美国国债。

公司将其 16% 至 18% 的 ROTCE 目标定位为中长期目标，与之前讨论的三至五年时间框架一致。管理层指出，随着更多高资本效率的收入流入平台，目前约为 56% 至 57% 的有形效率比率可能会趋向 55% 左右的区间。

业绩电话会议完整文字记录

完整财报电话会议逐字稿

管理层陈述

Operator

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Truist Financial Corporation Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this event is being recorded.

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Bradley Milsaps.

Bradley Milsaps

Thank you, Betsy, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Truist's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. With us today are our CEO, Mike Lyons; and our CFO, Mike Maguire. During this morning's call, they will discuss Truist's third quarter 2026 results, share their perspectives on current business conditions and provide an updated outlook for 2026.

The accompanying presentation as well as our earnings release and supplemental financial information are available on the Truist Investor Relations website, ir.truist.com. Our presentation today will include forward-looking statements and certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please review the disclosures on Slides 2 and 3 of the presentation regarding these statements and measures as well as the appendix for required reconciliations to GAAP.

With that, I'll turn it over to Mike Lyons.

Michael Lyons

Thanks, Brad, and good morning, everyone. It's good to be with you on my first earnings call. I've long admired Truist and its predecessor companies, and I'm excited about the opportunity to build on the company's tremendous assets and attributes to drive better operating performance, faster growth higher profitability and greater shareholder value.

Before we dig in and on behalf of everyone at Truist, I want to recognize Bill Rogers and thank him for his leadership and many contributions to the company over his 46-year career. I'm especially grateful for the warm welcome he has shown me since the announcement in June.

Turning to the quarter. we grew earnings per share 12% year-on-year, excluding the impact of the previously announced RAC sale and the associated capital neutral AFS repositioning that we completed during the quarter. These results were broadly in line with our expectations. Wealth Management performed ahead of plan, client deposit growth and asset quality were both better than expected, and we maintained expense discipline with costs coming in below plan.

On the flip side, amid broader market volatility, we had some investment banking revenue get pushed out late in the quarter. Our revenues also reflect lower loan balances as our sharper focus on risk-adjusted returns in wholesale impacted volumes, and we saw higher-than-expected paydown. Mike will walk you through the quarter in detail in a moment. But first, I wanted to share some of my early observations and how I'm thinking about the opportunity ahead.

As I've said to many of you, I came to Truist because of its exceptionally strong foundation in my belief in what this company can become. In my first 6 weeks, I spent a lot of time meeting with teammates, clients and investors. These conversations have only strengthened my conviction in Truist. We have all the raw materials to become one of the country's top-performing bank, and this is our overwhelming #1 objective. That said, it is no secret that we have not performed up to our potential over the last several years including falling short of the financial goals set forth at the time of the merger.

While I believe that, that history and context are important, and we have learned from it, we are where we are today, and we know we can perform better. We're now squarely focused on the future and are fortunate to move forward with some tremendous assets. Importantly, we do not need to reinvent Truist to win from here. From a strategic perspective, while Truist's purpose has always been clear and at the forefront, we have fallen short in translating that purpose into a focused set of strategic priorities and consistently aligning our investment decisions to support them.

As a result, some important initiatives have not received the level of investment or attention required, which inevitably makes execution more challenging. Going forward, we are clear on and committed to a strategy which narrows our focus to relationship-based businesses where we are competitively advantaged and can earn attractive returns by becoming the most important financial partner to our clients. And we will invest deliberately and consistently to support that strategy. Of course, the path to becoming this most important financial partner requires time and investment and differs across our two businesses.

In our CSPB segment, it means striving to win the DDA of every client across our branch footprint. We'll do this by increasing investment in the capabilities that matter most to our clients, great service, value-based products, multichannel access, speed and safety of payments, durable technology and trusted personalized advice. As part of this, we are shifting our consumer lending focus to areas that support a strong in-footprint DDA relationship like credit cards, home lending and unsecured loans.

Contrast this approach to today where we have operated too many nationally focused stand-alone single product businesses like marine and RV, Rack and LightStream, which have diverted attention and resources from growing our core deposit franchise. In wholesale, it means delivering capital and ultimately a broad array of value-added solutions that allow our clients to run their businesses better. We have an exceptional full-service franchise that offers Wall Street capabilities, industry vertical expertise and a top 10 balance sheet, which is uniquely combined and delivered through our relationship and community-based model rooted in 150 years plus of history.

While wholesale has performed well, we see meaningful opportunity to invest for growth. We're continuing to build a full-service treasury management platform. We have the opportunity to meaningfully expand our sales teams in middle market banking, rates and FX, brokerage and wealth advisory, and there are still a number of attractive lending businesses where we don't yet participate either at all or at the scale that we should.

Put simply, wholesale, including wealth management, has a strong foundation and solid momentum but there is considerable runway for investment-led growth, and we're already moving on some of this, recently adding over 40 bankers to our commercial middle market business. From an operational perspective, we need to get back to basics, simplify how we work, remove unnecessary complexity and eliminate low priority activities.

This is a straightforward operational framework that will support our strategy simplify, focus, execute and grow. So we start with a great foundation. We've now established a clear strategy and the operational framework to support it. From here, we have some important capital and resource allocation work to do to position ourselves to execute on this strategy successfully. This starts with reconfiguring and improving our balance sheet composition, and reallocating parts of our expense base to drive growth through key investments.

With respect to the balance sheet, we plan to remix our securities away from long-dated MDS into a greater mix of U.S. treasuries. Limit the use of our deposits to core strategic lending areas where we can build deep, long-standing relationships, reduce wholesale borrowings and maintain a strong through-the-cycle capital position. In terms of required investments, we are focused on closing key gaps in strengthening our branch and ATM networks, modernizing our technology, including more AI capabilities, adding client-facing talent in building digital and payments capabilities, including mobile banking, treasury management and credit cards.

Our goal is to make our branches more inviting, service more consistent, technology more resilient, our product set broader, operations simpler and ensure our teammates are better supported. Fund these investments, we're systematically reviewing all businesses, operations and processes through a straightforward lens that asks three questions. Is it core to our strategy? Is it generating targeted returns? And is it protecting the bank or helping our clients? Something does not pass these tests we're redirecting resources and capital to fund strategic growth investments while maintaining expense discipline.

Our sale of RAC and the associated repositioning of the balance sheet, and today's announcement with LightStream come directly from this process and reflect our new framework, accelerated pace and enhance shareholder focus. We're aiming to finish this evaluation by the end of the year, and in early 2027, we'll provide more details on our outlook for the year and our path to becoming a top-performing bank, and the investments we're making take shape over time. Of course, making the right strategic and resource allocation decisions is only the first part of the equation.

From there, we have to execute sharply on our day-to-day operations and a significant investment agenda. To that end, we've made some important leadership changes in CSPB designed to ensure that we have the right breadth and depth of leadership to execute and achieve our ambitions. As part of this, Steve Boland will join Truist as Vice Chair, bringing more than 3 decades of consumer banking experience, including as the former President of Retail Banking at Bank of America. Shim Samir, who we announced this summer as the head of Truist Wealth Management, after a 20-plus year career at Bank of America, will move over to become Chief Consumer Banking Officer. Shim has extensive experience leading large-scale consumer and branch businesses and operations and will play a critical role as we focus on growing deposits. And Jeff Warner will join Truist to lead small business banking, a highly attractive segment where we are well positioned with significant upside. Jeff brings over 25 years of business and corporate banking experience to us.

In short, we've sharpened CSBB's focus added highly experienced leaders to complement our existing talent and flatten the organization, all designed to drive the execution of our growth plan. Going forward, across Truist, we will bring disciplined management and deliver crisp execution and operational excellence, and we will hold ourselves accountable for outcomes measured against the industry's top performers. By doing so, we will become a consistently high performer ourselves, making our existing profitability targets look more like table stakes. We remain committed to delivering on our ROCE targets which includes 15% in 2027 and 16% to 18% over the long term.

Regarding returns, I should note that while some of the actions we're taking in the near term, like RAC and LightStream will necessarily reduce the balance sheet, our strategy is not about shrinking to achieve higher returns. It's about creating a stronger foundation for both sustainable growth and higher returns over time. We appreciate your support and feedback as we execute this strategic review and position Truist to achieve its full potential.

With that, I'll turn it over to Mike to discuss this quarter.

Michael Maguire

Thank you, Mike. As Mike discussed, we've been reviewing our businesses and lending portfolios with a focus on strategic fit, capital efficiency and risk-adjusted returns. As you can see on Slide 5, we completed the previously announced sale of our $5.5 billion RAC auto loan portfolio at the end of the third quarter and have exited that business. We received net proceeds of $5.2 billion from the sale, which we used to reduce borrowings.

Of note, the sale meaningfully improved our credit risk profile, reducing consolidated nonperforming loans by 28% and expected annualized net charge-offs by 10 basis points. The sale also generated approximately $1 billion or 23 basis points of CET1 capital, which we utilized to reposition a portion of our AFS securities portfolio. As we detail on the left-hand side of the slide, we sold $8.6 billion of book value, lower-yielding Agency MBS securities with a 2.67% book yield in a duration of 5.8 years and then purchased $7.2 billion of investment securities effectively yielding approximately 5.6% and with a duration of 2.3 years, adjusted for the new pay-fixed swaps that were added at the time of the purchases.

Taken together, these actions were immediately accretive to tangible book value per share and are expected to provide benefits to earnings per share and ROTCE beginning in the fourth quarter. As mentioned, in addition to these completed actions, we continue to evaluate other businesses based on strategic and financial potential. As part of this work, we are pleased to announce this morning that we have signed an agreement to sell $7.7 billion of loans representing substantially all of the assets of Lightstream, a national provider of direct unsecured personal loans.

Similar to our decision to sell RAC, the sale of Lightstream represents an exit from a noncore loan-only business that is generating returns well below our targets. Exiting Lightstream will also improve our credit risk, liquidity and funding profiles. The transaction, which we expect to close during the fourth quarter is estimated to generate net proceeds of $7.2 billion, create $850 million or 20 basis points of CET1 capital and reduced consolidated annual net charge-offs by approximately 7 basis points. We will use the sale proceeds to repay wholesale funding, and based on market conditions at closing, we will evaluate potential uses of the incremental capital generated, including repositioning additional AFS securities. To the extent that we do reposition AFS securities, we will invest in securities that shorten the duration of the AFS portfolio and increase the proportion of the portfolio that is invested in U.S. treasuries.

Now turning to third quarter results on Slide 6. We reported GAAP net income available to common shareholders of $684 million or $0.56 per diluted share. As shown on the slide, the strategic actions we just discussed reduced reported EPS by a net $0.60 per share, reflecting $0.90 per share of losses from the AFS securities repositioning and $0.06 per share of RAC-related costs and losses, these were partially offset by a $0.36 per share benefit from the RAC-related reserve release. Excluding these items, adjusted EPS was $1.16 per share, which is up 12% versus the third quarter of 2025. Adjusted ROTCE was 14.6%, a 100 basis point improvement from the third quarter of 2025, driven by higher earnings and continued capital return.

Next, I'll cover our balance sheet on Slide 7. As Mike highlighted, we are intensely focused on enhancing the composition of our balance sheet and maintaining a strong through-the-cycle capital position. The strategic actions we took in Q3 positively impacted our balance sheet composition and reduced our risk profile. As you can see on the slide, average loans declined $3.6 billion or 1.1%, largely reflecting the impact of the rack loan sale and reduced originations in prime auto and marine/RV. While average investment securities at amortized costs were up modestly linked quarter, they were down $2.8 billion on a period-end basis.

Deposit trends remained strong with average deposits increasing 1.4% linked quarter and 3.6% versus a year ago, driven primarily by higher client deposit balances. This deposit growth along with proceeds created from the rack sale allowed us to reduce broker deposits and other short-term borrowings during the quarter. During the quarter, we returned $1.8 billion of capital to shareholders through our $632 million common dividend and share repurchases of $1.2 billion. Our CET1 ratio declined 20 basis points linked quarter to 10.7% and driven by capital return to shareholders and the AFS securities repositioning, partially offset by earnings and the RAC loan sale.

Now turning to average loans and leases on Slide 8. Average loans held for investment declined $3.6 billion or 1.1% linked quarter to $326 billion, with the decline largely reflecting the strategic portfolio actions we've taken. As shown on the right-hand side of the slide, approximately $2.7 billion of the decline was the result of strategic runoff in our consumer and commercial loan portfolios. That runoff reflects actions we began taking in the second quarter including discontinuing marine/RV loan originations and significantly reducing production and other less strategic, low-return consumer and commercial lending businesses.

In addition, we transferred the $5.5 billion RAC portfolio to held for sale in September, reducing average loan balances by another $1.7 billion. The RAC portfolio was sold at the end of the quarter, so we'll see the full impact on average loan balances in the fourth quarter. Outside of these actions, core loan balances increased $0.8 billion linked quarter due to growth in consumer loans, including service finance, Sheffield and residential mortgage, partially offset by lower C&I balances.

Decline in C&I reflected both our focus on reducing exposure to lending segments that do not meet our ROTC objectives and elevated paydowns experienced during the quarter in certain industry portfolios. Based on our current commercial loan pipeline, we would expect average commercial loan balances to increase in the fourth quarter supporting mid-single-digit growth in commercial loan balances for the full year. As a result, we remain confident in our ability to deliver average loan growth of 3% to 4% in 2026, excluding the impact of the sales of RAC and LightStream.

Moving to deposit trends on Slide 9. Average deposits increased 1.4% linked quarter and 3.6% year-over-year, driven primarily by growth in interest checking. The growth continues to reflect stronger client deposit balances, primarily in our Wholesale segment. Compared to the third quarter of last year, average client deposits increased $16 billion, while other treasury and corporate managed deposits declined $2 billion which is aligned with the goal Mike discussed earlier to change the composition of our balance sheet to more profitably fund and support long-term growth. We generated positive net new checking account growth in the quarter and year-to-date, and we'll look to accelerate that growth with the investments Mike discussed.

The growth in client deposits, combined with the liquidity generated by the RAC sale allowed us to meaningfully reduce noncore funding. Average total borrowings declined $4.5 billion or 6.6% year-over-year, including a significant reduction in short-term borrowings. Deposit costs remained relatively stable on a linked quarter basis. Average interest-bearing deposit costs increased 2 basis points linked quarter to 2.12%, while total deposit costs increased 3 basis points to 1.59%.

Moving to net interest income and net interest margin on Slide 10. Taxable equivalent net interest income increased $40 million or 1.1% linked quarter to $3.7 billion primarily reflecting the benefit of fixed rate asset repricing and 1 additional day in the quarter, partially offset by lower loan balances. Net interest margin increased 2 basis points to 3%, driven by fixed rate asset repricing and a slightly smaller balance sheet.

Looking ahead, we expect fourth quarter net interest income of $3.65 billion to $3.7 billion. That outlook reflects an approximately $125 million reduction in net interest income from the RAC loan sale, partially offset by an approximately $40 million increase due to the AFS securities repositioning completed at the end of the third quarter. As a reminder, RAC was a roughly breakeven business. So while the sale reduces net interest income, we also expect lower associated noninterest expense and credit costs to provide an offset to lower net interest income.

The combination of the RAC loan sale and the AFS securities repositioning are modestly accretive to EPS and ROTCE. Finally, as shown on the lower right-hand side of the slide, our swap portfolio was largely unchanged from the second quarter, while our interest rate sensitivity remains relatively neutral.

Turning to noninterest income now on Slide 11. We Noninterest income declined to $84 million in the third quarter of 2026, and due to $1.4 billion of losses on the AFS securities sold during the quarter and $66 million of losses associated with the RAC sale recorded in other income. Excluding these items, adjusted noninterest income declined $47 million or 2.9% linked quarter to $1.6 billion, driven by $47 million of lower adjusted other income due primarily to a $30 million decline in NQDCP income, which is offset in personnel expense. $28 million of lower investment banking and trading income due to lower trading and M&A activity, partially offset by stronger equity and debt capital markets activity.

These declines were partially offset by $32 million of higher wealth management income driven by favorable equity market performance. Third quarter wealth management income of $407 million represents our best quarter ever in wealth. Overall, card and treasury management fees declined modestly linked quarter, primarily reflecting weakness in merchant, where we recently launched a new partnership aimed at improving performance. Treasury management continues to be an important area of focus and investment with fees continuing to grow healthy pipelines and continued product adoption.

Compared to the third quarter of 2025, adjusted noninterest income increased 2.5% and driven by higher wealth management income, partially offset by lower other income. Excluding the impact of the investment securities losses and the RAC loan sale, we expect adjusted noninterest income to increase about 5% in the fourth quarter versus the third quarter of 2026, resulting in about 10% growth in adjusted noninterest income for the full year.

Next, I'll cover noninterest expense on Slide 12. Expense growth remained well controlled in the third quarter. Noninterest expense increased $50 million or 1.6% linked quarter to $3.1 billion. The increase was driven by $40 million of costs primarily related to severance associated with the rack sale. Excluding those costs, adjusted noninterest expense increased just 0.3% linked quarter.

Compared to the third quarter of last year, noninterest expense increased 3%, also reflecting the rack-related severance costs as well as higher salaries and incentives tied to performance in wealth and investment banking and trading. Excluding the RAC-related costs, adjusted expenses increased 1.7% versus the third quarter of 2025. For the fourth quarter, we expect noninterest expense to increase 2.5% versus the third quarter, reported noninterest expense of $3.1 billion. Fourth quarter expenses will still include approximately $25 million of rack loan servicing costs which are expected to be eliminated from the expense run rate in the first quarter.

Next, I'll discuss asset quality on Slide 13. Overall credit this quarter remained strong, and the RAC loan sale meaningfully improves our credit risk profile going forward. Our reported credit metrics this quarter do reflect the impact of completing the sale. Net charge-offs were $629 million or 77 basis points versus 50 basis points in the second quarter of 2026, and 48 basis points in the third quarter of 2025. However, adjusting for $317 million of RAC loan losses during the quarter, adjusted net charge-offs were $312 million or 38 basis points of average loans held for investment.

Our provision for credit losses was a benefit of $253 million, reflecting a $581 million loan loss reserve recapture related to the RAC loan sale. Excluding RAC, our provision for credit losses was $328 million. The allowance for loan losses declined 26 basis points linked to 1.25% and but ALLL coverage of NPLs improved from 2.9x to 3.1x on a linked quarter basis. Nonperforming loans held for investment decreased 11 basis points linked quarter to 40 basis points of total loans due primarily to the RAC loan sale, partially offset by an increase in C&I problem loans.

Now I'll review our guidance for the fourth quarter of 2026. For the fourth quarter, we expect revenue of approximately $5.35 billion, which reflects the outlook for net interest income I discussed earlier and 5% linked quarter growth in adjusted noninterest income. We expect reported noninterest expense to increase approximately 2.5% linked quarter. On asset quality, we expect net charge-offs of 45 basis points, reflecting normal 4Q seasonality.

We expect an effective tax rate of 13.5% and an FTE tax rate of 15.5%. As it relates to buybacks, our outlook assumes share repurchases of approximately $1 billion during the fourth quarter, which is a modest reduction from the third quarter repurchases of $1.2 billion. This reflects recent changes in the interest rate environment, the ongoing strategic review and our goal to maintain a strong through-the-cycle capital position. For the avoidance of doubt, our outlook excludes the impact of any potential additional strategic actions in the fourth quarter, including the sale of LightStream.

Overall, we entered the fourth quarter with a clear strategy, solid underlying financial performance, higher quality balance sheet composition, a reduced credit risk profile and in a strong capital position. As Mike discussed, we'll continue to evaluate opportunities to simplify the company and direct capital and resources to our businesses where we see the best opportunities for growth and attractive returns, and we look forward to providing you with a fulsome strategic and financial outlook in early 2027.

With that, I'll turn it back to Brad for Q&A.

Bradley Milsaps

Thank you, Mike. Betsy, at this time, will you please explain how our listeners can participate in the Q&A session. [Operator Instructions]

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The first question today comes from Ryan Nash with Goldman Sachs.

分析师问答

Ryan Nash

Welcome to the call, Mike. So you gave a lot of on your view of the company and shared the lens that you're going to be looking at things through, which was very helpful. Just as you think about the broader strategic review that is underway, what are some of the other areas that might not meet your criteria?

And as you think about investing is the most increased investment needed? Maybe just expand a little bit on the strategy to grow DDA? And where are you expecting to find areas to remix costs from?

Michael Lyons

Sure. Thank you for the question. And 6 weeks in, I had a chance to spend a lot of time with the team over the summer, so hit the ground running. But as I said in the prepared comments, excited about the opportunity in front of us. And importantly, we're moving with focus and urgency but clear eyed about the work that needs to be done to make us a top performer. No major surprises so far, positive or negative on the positive side, the great foundation that everybody knows about, Truist and all the positive attributes have been confirmed, the branch footprint is unquestionably strong size and density would be hard, if not impossible, to replicate in these markets.

We have some very high-quality businesses, as I've gone through the reviews, small business, [ DCM ], commercial real estate, ABS, wealth, corporate banking, it's just a long list, all of which as I'll talk about in a second, could perform better with even more incremental investment. And then importantly, we spent a lot of time in the markets, deep client relationships and, it's interesting, a lot of them really want a true Southeastern Sunbelt winning bank, and we want to obviously deliver that for them.

As recognized earlier, despite the positive attributes, we haven't performed up to the potential or expectations. And I think going through the review, and I said it in the comments, we don't need to reinvent Truist to win, it's an important point. The biggest opportunity I've seen is just be clear on the strategy and then align our capital and resources against it. We found capital spread to a lot of areas that don't either support our core strategy or areas where we have a clear right to win.

And the strategic review exercise that we're going through is trying to get after all of that. And it's simply every -- it's not just businesses, it's every process, every operation, every committee, every decision we make, everything goes in, no sacred cows. We have a clear lens that I talked about. Is it strategic? Does it clear financial returns? Or does it separately do something to protect the bank, which we obviously need to do or enhance client service.

And if it doesn't, we're moving it out. If it does, we're assessing what does it need, and that's really the essence of the sources, and we call it the sources and uses exercise, and the goals are really twofold to enhance the balance sheet, which Mike talked about a lot, and we're happy with the progress we made this quarter and then really take our current expense base and create incremental capacity within it. by stopping doing noncore, nonstrategic things and funding strategic investments where we have the right to win and can grow.

And those decisions some of those decisions are easy and some of those decisions are harder because you may pass one or two of the tests you saw, as Mike talked about, with RAC and LightStream earlier examples were not very profitable or unprofitable and not strategic to what we're trying to do, easy to do, and we move those and it's accretive to earnings at tangible book value and allows us to focus on the core.

That work is ongoing. As I said, we're going to -- that will run up. We have it scheduled to run up near the end of the year and then early in the year as part of our fourth quarter earnings, we'll explain outline to you all what came out of that and the path to the long-term ROCE targets.

They exercise that hopefully you're able to capture from the comments. The exercise is twofold. It's identifying the sources and uses, and we're encouraged by what we're seeing there. And then you have to go execute and make the investments. And I think that goes to your question. You saw some of the changes we made today to the management team to better position us with increased experience and depth to execute on those. So we're thinking about both angles of that.

When you go through on the investment side, on the retail side, we've got this great footprint, and we've got a great branch franchise, but we haven't invested appropriately in it. So a big part, as I said, with the CSPB, focus is into the branch network into the ATM network, our technology in the branches, mobile, digital, more performance-based marketing and enhanced client-focused credit card platform, you can go -- there's lots of different things that work a rewards platform in there.

On the wholesale side, we're continuing our buildout in treasury management, which we're pleased with the progress there. It's a great business that -- where our penetration of clients is still very small relative to peers. So we obviously want to stay focused on that.

And then the bigger piece of wholesale is just adding more people. We've got a great platform. It's a unique platform that can as we said, the combined capital markets capabilities and core balance sheet lending and more people selling more stuff across the country and taking care of our clients. So those are the big highlights and a review of the process we're going through.

Ryan Nash

Awesome. And as my follow-up, you reiterated the return targets, which I think was great to hear just given some of the skepticism in the market. I guess just in order to achieve these -- well, I know there's a lot of uncertainty because you're still going through the review, just any broad strokes how long and far do you expect the balance sheet to shrink? And as you sell these businesses, how do you think about the ability to tangible book value?

Michael Lyons

Sure. I'll start with the last piece. The decisions we made so far when you -- certainly with RAC when you combine it with the AFS repositioning it's accretive to tangible book value. And I think we have that lens when we consider any of these. And I think what's really important to consider what we did with RAC and LightStream is we have meaningfully changed the stressed credit loss profile of the company.

In addition to other changes on the balance sheet that Mike talked about, reduced wholesale borrowings reduced duration of the securities portfolio. I think it's really important. So we're growing tangible book value as part of these transactions. Obviously, you've got some movement in AOCI this quarter that shows up in the reported numbers. But the transaction itself are accretive to tangible book value, and we'll keep that lens as we go through all of the actions. This isn't about going through we may find some opportunities to spend a little to save perpetually, but this isn't about taking a big charge and destroying tangible book value and rebuilding over time.

It's creating capacity within our own within our own financial wherewithal. On the reiteration of the financial targets, we're on track to do what we said we would do in 2026. In January, we'll give you the -- obviously, a very specific outline for the 15% target next year. And then the whole strategic review will build that bridge for you to the 16% to 18% over time, comfortable reiterating it because we believe, and it is over time, it's a long-term target that the company has every right to be one of the top performers.

And if you look at the best performers in our industry, they're all at or above range. And so we believe we can do there. If you go through, again, what are the drivers on that bridge, clear strategy, focused investments, better and world-class execution, reduce bureaucracy and distractions much crisper and more urgent and speed in the company. Obviously, had some key financial levers like the HTM book pulling back to par. And then -- as I said earlier, there are incredible opportunities to go throughout the bank, low penetration and treasury management lending areas that we aren't fully scaled in or don't even participate in today. So loss FX and rates, huge opportunities. So those are some of the stuff will take you through, but we need some time to finish the review.

Operator

The next question comes from Scott Siefers with TD Cowen.

Unknown Analyst

Mike, congratulations. So I guess a little bit of a follow-up on sort of the kind of what you do with the proceeds from some of these decisions like the loan sales, et cetera. It certainly feels like you're moving with pace to position the company where you want it to be. When you think about what you have done what you might do with capital created by things like the loan and business line sales.

I guess one of the things that comes up quite a bit in investor conversations is just sort of this tension in that there are obvious places to clean up and reposition sort of theoretically like the securities portfolio. But it is a cost kind of steep cost to doing so, like long earnbacks on security sales, for instance. So maybe just at a very top level, if you could speak to the balance between near-term cost and long-term benefits as you look for sort of where to reallocate the capital, whether it's financial engineering, long-term business opportunities, et cetera?

Michael Lyons

Sure. And I'll start out, and Mike said it a hallmark of the company going forward is going to be a high-quality balance sheet with strong through-the-cycle capital position. Mike talked about the stuff, reducing duration in the securities portfolio reducing wholesale borrowings. And then I mentioned meaningful reduction in stressed credit loss profile with moving out some unprofitable or marginally profitable assets with high risk profiles, especially as you go through cycle.

So as an overarching view take that as a hallmark company, there is no -- the path we're going down is focusing resources to drive [indiscernible] execution no financial engineering and the work that we're doing. And we're looking through, as Michael go through, we're looking through to the future Basel III rules and whether the AOCI has come through the Tier 1 common or not, it sort of changes the dynamic of how you think about earnbacks and the like because it will be in your capital soon enough anyway.

So why don't you go through, Mike?

Michael Maguire

Scott, maybe just to add to that, we do think it is, and as we've demonstrated with RAC, a sensible thing to sort of pair these capital creation events with our ambition to improve the duration of the balance sheet. Mike mentioned with Basel III really coming into focus and insight, we do feel like it's sensible to take to take action around the securities portfolio. It's not an endless population of actionable AFS bonds, right? The securities that we targeted with the rack sale, we're the most obvious population to pursue.

I think I mentioned this fall at a conference, we felt like there's -- there could be another $17 billion or $18 billion of AFS securities that we think could be actionable. We think the opportunity to, again, reduce duration especially is a worthwhile endeavor. And so look, we need to get LightStream completed. We're going to continue to evaluate these other businesses and products and operations and let that all settle. But that maybe gives you some insight into our thinking.

Michael Lyons

Yes. And the overarching theme we keep saying is creating incremental capacity within our existing resources. So the capital neutral generated capital from selling an unprofitable higher-risk business. capital neutral trade, and we'll think about the same way on LightStream. And as we're going through the sources and uses, we're thinking about the same thing from an expense perspective.

Unknown Analyst

Perfect. And then maybe as a follow-up, just sort of qualitatively, I think there's a sense in the market that in the immediate few years after the BB&T SunTrust deal, Truist spent a lot of time sort of on stacked feet as you went through kind of extended integration, et cetera, and had gotten back on its front feet over the last couple of years. But just now that you're sort of a fresh set of eyes, I guess, what's your sense for internal perception of the kind of momentum that Truist has sort of culturally versus where you want or need it to be?

Michael Lyons

Well, I think we're fortunate to have a terrific leadership team, a terrific base of employees here. I mentioned the comment on our clients. I don't think it's internally different. People want to be on a winning team and to be on a winning team to take this great franchise and all the great foundation that was built through the merger and make it a winning team. We're making tough decisions moving with [ PACE ]. We're communicating clearly our people. And I think you can ask them yourselves, but I think they're responding well. And certainly, when I see in the markets, when I'm out with the team, they're on their front feet, they want investment in the businesses.

And with investment in the businesses they can win. It's -- we have great markets that attract great competition. And if we don't invest, it's hard to compete. Our people want to win and compete, but they -- we can't just ask them to work harder without the right level of investment. So the sources and uses exercise. It's a balance inside the company. As I said, we -- you've heard about some of the earlier sources and uses where you have an unprofitable business where we can change and create a lot of positive benefit that gets tougher as we go.

So people will have to give up some stuff to put us in a position to win. But when you look at primary measures of how people are. We look at top-performing turnover, which is down on a year-over-year basis. So you see some indications like that. But I think I'd just summarize it by saying people want to win. And so do we, and we want to do the right things to drive that.

Operator

The next question comes from Manan Gosalia with Morgan Stanley.

Manan Gosalia

And welcome, Mike. I was wondering if you can give us more color on some of the lending businesses. You noted were attractive for Truist, but that you don't participate in right now. I think you noted some of the hiring efforts are also already underway. If you can talk to how much more there is to do and how quickly you think the production can show up on the balance sheet?

Michael Lyons

Sure. To go back to 2 things I mentioned in Ryan's question, we have a great small business platform, it's a complete deposit machine. We're underpenetrated in lending there, so good opportunities there. And then you go through the major consumer lending categories, we obviously have competitively national platforms.

Service Finance in Sheffield, but we see opportunity to grow home equity for our clients in direct auto for our clients, certainly credit card for our clients and continue even with the national decision on LightStream, we're still going to do unsecured for our clients where it helps the relationship. So good growth opportunities on the consumer side, great lending opportunity on the small business side.

On the wealth side, relative to peers, our lending penetration is very low. So great opportunity there. And then as I mentioned earlier, we have an absolutely outstanding wholesale platform. great leadership team. We're attracting talent in the business. It's unique to have as I said, the Wall Street capabilities, big balance sheet, great DCM platform and be as penetrated into the markets as we are. That business would benefit, as I said, from more salespeople and more investments in certain key products, treasury management, obviously, is clear there. more feet on the ground in FX REITs, middle market lending.

Then we're underpenetrated in areas like any of the asset-based or asset-backed platforms. securities based on, as I talked to on the wealth side, equipment finance, GAAP comes in the full relationship on the private equity side. So and that's just those are incremental areas. You go to every market we're in. We have more opportunity there.

And Chris and her team have done a great job building out really over the last year's hires in our corporate banking business. where we're underpenetrated there. You go nationally, we're less than 3% share of commercial lending. So I feel good about all the opportunities to put money to work there, and that's not a long investment cycle to -- on the retail side, if you go and start thinking about reinvigorating the branch franchise and the like, we'll get some immediate returns from better execution and immediate investment, but it's a longer investment cycle. On the commercial side, it's a much shorter investment cycle and we've been at it for several years on treasury management. So excited about our opportunities there.

Manan Gosalia

Yes. Actually, that was going to be my follow-up question on the branch strategy because you mentioned that there's some work to do on strengthening the branch footprint, making the branches more inviting. I guess, how -- what is the pace at which you can make these investments?

And is there more opportunity to either optimize brand footprint or grow the brown footprint and bring in those DDAs in the medium term?

Michael Lyons

Yes, there is, and that's a big focus of the exercise we're going through. We think we've got a great footprint. It's not about going into other markets. We're in the best markets in the country. It's we haven't opened -- virtually opened any branches. Our branches need refurbishment, lots of room to take on the ATM strategy. We haven't built rewards platform that's become table stakes for the best-performing banks who are winning the most net new accounts, have a good mobile and digital platforms, but have to constantly invest there to stay competitive performance-based marketing has been light for us, work with place banking as in like for us.

So it's a -- each of those have a slightly different investment cycle. You've obviously seen a lot of stats out there as people open branches. It takes time. But the sprit decor and the momentum that it builds within our franchise by just starting is important and spent a lot of time in the branches since I've started, and we're already after some of the basic revitalization of the network. But as we go through the remainder of the year and work on the sources and uses, this is a big part of it.

And as you saw in the moves we made this morning on the management side, it's there's a big execution part of this, too, and we're building a team that has deep experience doing this seen what works -- what hasn't worked before to complement the team we have here.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Erika Najarian with UBS.

L. Erika Penala

Just on the ROTCE outlook, a lot of discussions with your investors have sort of centered around the idea that they are confident that over time, you'll get to that 16% to 18%, but there is a nervousness that that's going to cost you in terms of earnings power. And as we think about that natural tension between growth versus returns. And of course, the premise of this MOE years ago was that this is going to be the bank in the ROTE footprint in the United States.

Mike, I'm curious how you're sort of thinking about that through time. And additionally, as you think about 2027, you mentioned investments and appropriately so many times, is there enough cost to recycle here over the near term? Or you're just really dead focused on getting the businesses sort of the investment oxygen it needs. So you can not only get to the 16% to 18% but also appropriate earnings power for the company?

Michael Lyons

I'd say yes, everything. The -- yes, there's the investment that's needed, and we started that A lot of this investment that we're talking about has to naturally be sequenced over time. You can't just -- even if you had the money, you can't just wake up and staff your finger and spend all of the money. So there's a natural sequencing to it over time. With respect to '27 and the specific numbers there, we're doing the work now. We're going as fast as we can. And as soon as there's anything to tell you as we find sources along the way, we've been telling it to you.

I think, considering -- I mean, I just showed up. So I don't have a lot of the past history, but when you take a hard look at the businesses we have, the processes we have and what we're doing, we're encouraged our either discourage encouraged, but we're encouraged by the opportunity we're finding to reallocate existing expenses that aren't adding to the strategy of being the most important financial partner to your clients and the ability to redirect those into strategic investments.

And -- but the work we're doing is we're still early in that you identify the source, the use we're clear, I just answered some of the uses we do, how those uses play out over time and how those investment dollars come out over time. But the goal is to continue as best we can to work within our existing expense base to reallocate expenses and create incremental capacity for these investments. And I think it's important just starting somewhere, it's important. We haven't invested in the branch franchise in a long time. We'll start somewhere and then pace that out as we go.

Michael Maguire

And Erika, I would maybe just add because you put the continuum of growth versus returns. I think we believe that we can grow and improve returns. And you think about some of the areas where Mike has talked about investing on the wholesale business, we want to grow those businesses from a footings perspective, but we want to do a much better job driving better returns through having broader relationships and delivering more products and services to those clients.

On the consumer side, a lot of the focus is going to be on creating even higher quality funding portfolios over time to support that growth. So we see a scenario, at least that's the design to have the company. Again, are we taking a couple of steps back here as we divest businesses that are aligned to the strategy and that are, don't have the profit potential that we desire, yes. But we hope that sooner than later, we'll be back into growth mode.

Frankly, we're in growth mode, but it's being offset by some of these small steps backward. But we can grow, I think, and improve profitability. The goal is just where you started. We hope that the merger 7 years ago now creates the best bank and the best footprint, but given the lack of investment and some deferred investments since then, we're clear-eyed about the work we have to do, and that's what we're going after now. You just -- I can assure you, we're doing it with focus, clarity and urgency.

Operator

The next question comes from Ken Usdin with Autonomous Research.

Kenneth Usdin

Thanks for the update on the fourth quarter NII outlook. And I just wanted to further follow that further and just say -- just ask -- so that clearly reflects the RAC loan sale and the increase from the AFS securities repositioning. Is there a way you can kind of give us or box that for the incremental stream sale in terms of how that would impact, I guess, more '27 numbers, given that we don't exactly know when in fourth quarter that might close?

Michael Maguire

Yes, sure, Ken. We don't know precisely when LightStream will close. We do expect it to close during the during the quarter, perhaps mid-quarter or so. If you look at the full quarter impact of LightStream from an NII perspective, it would be in the, call it, $95 million area. So that business has about a 9.25% yield and apply funds against it. That gets you to 95%.

Yes, I'm sorry. I'm assuming you're what are you doing with the proceeds. We've outlined -- you've seen what we've done with regional. We did mention that we're going to evaluate an AFS repositioning here -- the population of bonds, I mentioned this a little bit earlier on the call, that would be sort of next up to target, has a different profile than what we just did with RAC.

The RAC repositioning we sold Agency MBS that had a duration profile of, call it, close to 6 years or so and replaced it with securities one swap with a higher proportion of treasuries, had a duration profile closer to 3. The population that would be next up is probably a mid-2s yielding again, agency MBS, but it's, for the most part, swapped.

And so it has a duration profile that's closer to, call it, 3 years as we look forward, and I mentioned this in our prepared remarks, we would take almost entirely the entire purchase ticket on the other side of that would be treasuries, and we would swap those treasuries. So that would take the effective duration closer to 0, frankly.

So again, I don't know exactly what we'll do or when we'll do it, but that maybe gives you a couple of puzzle pieces.

Kenneth Usdin

It does. And on the cost side, it seems like you're going to spend to save to invest. And obviously, that's a lot, and we're going to hear more in January. But just maybe just top-down views of just -- how you think about that? Like is it -- are you going to try to just to hold the line on total cost at the end of the day? Or is it today versus tomorrow debate in terms of just like how you look at ROI on sales spend and invest?

Michael Maguire

Yes. I would just say -- I'd think about it this way, and Mike's gone into a fair amount of detail about it. Like every single -- the same strategic lens that we're looking at our businesses and our products. We're looking at every single dollar of expense in the company. And if it's not aligned to where we're headed we're -- and it doesn't add value and it doesn't protect the firm or serve clients in a meaningful way. We're going to simply stop it. And so we think there's going to be a significant opportunity to remix those dollars to support the investment agenda.

Look, you asked for a top down, like we don't expect there to be some seismic shift in the trajectory of our expense profile. But look, we got to get through the work, and we're going to come back in January and give you a fuller sense for what '27 looks like and beyond. Again, I think it's important that Mike did highlight that he's comfortable with a 15% ROTCE. And so hopefully, that helps for next year, pardon me.

Operator

The next question comes from Mike Mayo with Wells Fargo.

Michael Mayo

You said you want to become a top-performing bank. So for investors 5 years from now, what does that mean? And what message are you sending to employees about how you'd like to see them change the way they do business each day?

Michael Lyons

I think the concept of being the top-performing bank for us obviously impacts all of our constituencies, great place to work, great place to bank and then a great return for our investors. As I said, I think we've gotten, I think people agree we've got all the attributes to do this. We just haven't put them in a package and put the execution around it to deliver on that. When we go through and look at what does that look like in the franchise, obviously, for the shareholder view, Mike, we want to be a top returning bank from the customer perspective.

We'd love to see much faster growth reflective of some of our peers in net new DDA accounts and the branches, great penetration of our lending products in the branches, strong Net Promoter Scores across all the segments. Obviously, that all coming to fruition and a strong competitive ROTCE in that 16% to 18% range where most of our peers, the top-performing peers are on the commercial side deep, long-standing relationships, great treasury management penetration, net new flows in the wealth business. So those are some of the attributes that you would expect to see of a top-performing business, and we're holding we'll outline when we come out when we -- in January, when we walked you through the thing, we're going to narrow down and make it very clear for you. Some of them I just mentioned, what the KPIs will be across the businesses.

So it would be clear to hold us accountable. It's not going to be a shifting array of whatever is work in that quarter is the key measure to look at. So hopefully, and obviously a great place to work would be I talked about top performer turnover and the like. Those would be the attributes across the businesses.

Michael Mayo

And to get to that top performing status, I guess, Mike just said no seismic increase in expenses, but I am wondering about that trade-off like spending more today to get to those higher performing levels sooner, why create this constraint on expenses when you've only been there 6, 7 weeks, you're looking out, I guess, over the next 5 to 10 years, why not spend more now? And there's a trade-off there. I know we better earnings. So how do you think about that?

Michael Lyons

Again, we're going through the work now finding -- we're identifying sources and every source comes with a tough choice, as I said earlier, is for everything we do, there's at least one person who likes it, and we got to make tough choices and those will impact some stuff internally. The ability to pace at which we reinvested it really comes down to where can you be sure of great execution and crisp execution against it.

So that's a balance of making sure we have experience people capable of doing it, breaking our businesses down into digestible units that we can clearly hold accountable. But I think at least what we're seeing so far in the near term to get the investments going that we need to get going, the constraint is going to be more on whether we could actually do this stuff. Longer term, we're going to have to continue to source the expenses. But what we're finding now is at least for the next couple of years, we can get the key investments we needed going by reallocating existing expenses, we'll naturally grow expenses whatever launch what that...

Michael Maguire

Yes. I mean, Mike, I would say the word seismic was intentional, right? That's not intended to say that there won't be a change in our expense profile. We don't know we're doing the work. we're mindful of the profitability momentum and the profitability expectations. But like there are some concerns out there that we'll it will be a sort of step functional change, and that's just not how we're thinking about it.

Michael Lyons

And that as the constraint. I would love your point, Mike, would you love to spend it all now to get there. you just can't get it done on the investment side. They take time. You got to sequence them. And as I mentioned in my comments, adding feet on the ground in the corporate business. We're already there. We added 40 bankers, really top-ranked bankers so far. So we'll keep doing on the stuff that you can get at, but mindful of the creating capacity within the base.

Operator

The next question comes from John Pancari with Evercore.

John Pancari

And Mike, welcome to the call. At the risk of beating a dead horse, just around the confidence in the long-term ratio 16 to 18, just any way to help us if that timing of that attainability of the 16 to 18 has changed under your purview as you've looked at these different levers that need to be pulled. And then when it comes to the expense side of it, any way to maybe help us with the long-term efficiency ratio that you envision for the company that is appropriate under that 16 to 18, is it fair to assume that there could be some upward pressure on the efficiency here in the next several quarters as you execute on this before it finds its way to that long-term level?

Michael Maguire

John, it's Mike. I'll take it. When we initially published the ROTC targets, I think we sort of talked about that 16% to 18% as a 3- to 5-year target. A lot of moving parts here still. I don't think we're -- you shouldn't hear us say we're changing that outlook. I think we view that as a sort of medium, long-term view. So more to come in January there. But again, hopefully, you're feeling us express confidence that's where we're headed. In terms of efficiency ratio, a lot of try to think about what's the constellation of metrics that like creates the profile that gets us there.

Today, we're 56%, 57%. I think you could see that improving a little bit more so because we're going to become more productive from a revenue perspective. We want to put more revenue through the platform, capital-efficient revenue. And I think that has a likelihood of improving our tangible efficiency ratio from where it is today, call it, maybe mid-50s.

Michael Lyons

And I think I'd just add rather than looking at the absolute level of efficiency ratio, where the money is being spent. And that's where we're finding more opportunity.

Operator

The next question comes from Ebrahim Poonawala with Bank of America.

Ebrahim Poonawala

So welcome, Mike. And it sounds like -- I didn't hear you push back on Mike's question around this seems like a 5-year process. The what seems very clear what you're trying to do is -- makes sense. The how is super difficult given the markets you operate in.

So is it fair, and I'm not going to put this pin you down, but this does feel like a 5-year process, if you have any reflections or thoughts on that? And secondly, should we expect more senior executive changes as we fast forward to Jen. I'm assuming there's going to be a lot of line of business changes given the appointments of Steve and Jim, as you pointed out, across both those businesses.

Michael Lyons

Sure. I think the key point on the investments we start. We know exactly where we want to go, and we're going to start on those investments. And as I said in some of the retail areas, there's a fair amount of deferred investment there, and you got to start and you start that process. And as you go through the different investments, yes, some are, I don't think branch refurbishments.

We've got some catch-up work to do there, but that should be a constant maintenance investment perpetually through time, opening new branches to filling gaps in our existing franchise that obviously has a cycle to it. Other things like adding salespeople in key areas or finishing what started as a build in treasury management in 2023. It's just each investment has a separate time line around it. So it won't be a universal one spot in time. But key point for us is we know the assets that we have. We know the attributes of the company. We're in this great footprint. You just don't sit in the footprint and grow and be successful. You have to put money into it, you have to go compete and our people are ready to do that if we give them the investment, and that's what we're doing.

So as Mike said, that when -- from the long-term roci perspective, that was put out over the last year and is 3 to 5 years out, and that's the path we're working on giving you a nice bridge to -- in the beginning of next year. got a great management team here. I think in the opening comments, I made this is a two-part process. You have to get the sources and then you have to make the investments and -- we want to make sure we're surrounded by people who have the experience and have done this before, where we're putting key investments in.

So today's changes we're really to add to and complement the existing base of talent we have here flatten that organization out add to the depth. And as I said, to might create more digestible units where you can really hold people accountable to keep performance stats. And if there are other opportunities to do that and add talent. People want to come work with us, and we'll do it. But we have a great team here and feel very good about the foundation we're working off of.

Operator

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Brad Milsaps for any closing remarks.

Bradley Milsaps

Okay. Thank you, Betsy. That completes our earnings call. Apologies that we could not accommodate all you guys today, but please feel free to reach out to the Investor Relations team with questions. Thank you for your interest in Truist, an we hope you have a great day. That you may now disconnect the call.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.