Customers Bancorp: 3 Key Takeaways for Long-Term Investors
Key Points
Total deposits grew 11% year over year to $22.6 billion.
Noninterest-bearing deposits reached $7.2 billion in the third quarter.
Management raised its full-year loan growth guidance to 12% or higher.
On its third quarter of 2026 earnings call, held on Oct. 23, 2026, Customers Bancorp (NYSE:CUBI) highlighted record deposit and loan balances driven by artificial intelligence efficiency gains and team recruiting. This execution shows how organic expansion improves profitability without expensive bank acquisitions. Three takeaways from the call highlight where the business is heading.
1. Artificial Intelligence Shrinks Loan and Deposit Processing Times
The bank uses artificial intelligence tools to automate complex lending and deposit onboarding, which cuts processing times and boosts employee efficiency. That productivity allows current staff to handle higher transaction volume without adding headcount.
In lending, we scaled our AI powered loan underwriting process adding functionality and increasing utilization. The cycle time for this process is down 95%. This will allow the same team to handle significantly more loan throughput.
-- Samvir S. Sidhu, Chief Executive Officer
2. Team Hiring Expands Low-Cost Commercial Deposits
Customers Bancorp grows by recruiting commercial banking teams directly, expanding noninterest-bearing deposits -- checking accounts that pay zero interest to customers -- to $7.2 billion during the quarter. This organic recruitment model adds low-cost funding while avoiding goodwill clutter on the balance sheet.
The quality of our growth was strong. And I will highlight a few stats. Noninterest bearing deposits grew by about $300 million during the quarter, ending at $7.2 billion, which as Samvir noted, is another record for the third consecutive quarter.
-- Mark R. McCollom, Chief Financial Officer
3. Loan Origination Pricing Supports Net Interest Margin Expansion
Net interest margin -- the gap between interest earned on loans and interest paid on deposits -- expanded as new loan originations carried higher yields. Management expects higher lending spreads to drive continued gains in net interest income, which is profit earned from lending operations.
Our new volume on those loan yields came in at about 6.83%, which is about 50 basis points higher than our overall loan yield of 6.33% for the quarter.
-- Mark R. McCollom, Chief Financial Officer
Looking Ahead
Deposit and loan growth reached milestone levels during the quarter, and executive leadership points to expanding momentum across operations.
Simply put, it was a great quarter. We delivered record deposits and loans, real wins in AI, a more diversified cubiX platform, and continued success recruiting teams.
-- Samvir S. Sidhu, Chief Executive Officer
The bank relies on team recruiting and its proprietary cubiX digital payments platform to gather zero-cost operating deposits. Management is watching credit discipline and pricing discipline to protect returns as loans reprice heading into 2027.
We are building momentum heading into 2027, and we remain in the early innings of what this franchise can deliver.
-- Samvir S. Sidhu, Chief Executive Officer
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