Huntington Bancshares Inc. grew its RV and marine finance portfolio 32% year-over-year to $2.4 billion in 2017, reflecting the expansion of the acquired FirstMerit Corp. business into 17 new states over the past year, the bank reported during fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday.
“Note that the fourth quarter is seasonally the weakest for loan production in this business, but this quarter’s production exceeded the business plan and we remain optimistic for growth in 2018,” Mac McCullough, Huntington’s chief financial officer, said on the earnings call, adding that he expects seasonality in the first quarter will impact growth in the short-term.
“There will be some seasonality to certain of those products — mortgage and RV/marine — but, by the second quarter, those should be performing well,” he said.
