US regional banks brush off war jitters with lending surge, fee boost

"The sentiment rebound from the pause with tariffs last year has been the story. A lot of people who had paused last year to say where is all of this going are seeing a very resilient consumer and a lot of demand and beginning to lean into that in a fair way," U.S. Bancorp CEO Gunjan Kedia said.

A rush by technology companies to fund artificial intelligence infrastructure is also boosting financing activity for banks across the country. Top regional banking executives, however, emphasized that loan growth was broad-based and not just concentrated in the AI buildout.

"People are feeling very optimistic. They (clients) are growing their businesses and it's in all areas. It's in food and beverage. It's in media and technology. It's in power," U.S. Bancorp finance chief John Stern said.

On a year-on-year basis, U.S. Bancorp USB.N and Citizens Financial CFG.N reported over 7% and 5% growth in their average loans in the second quarter, while Regions Financial RF.N posted about 3% growth.