Company: HBAN
Filing Date: 2025-02-14
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000049196-25-000020
Chunk: 3

Company: HUNTINGTON BANCSHARES INC /MD/
Filing Date: 2025-02-14
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 8
Chunk 3
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 use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

Critical Audit Matters

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the consolidated financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that (i) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the consolidated financial statements and (ii) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.

Valuation of the General Reserve of the Allowance for Credit Losses

As described in Notes 1 and 5 to the consolidated financial statements, management’s estimate of the allowance for credit losses of $2.4 billion as of December 31, 2024 includes a general reserve that consists of various risk-profile reserve components. The risk-profile components consider items unique to the Company’s structure, policies, processes, and portfolio composition, as well as qualitative measurements and assessments of the Company’s loan portfolios including, but not limited to, economic uncertainty, concentrations, portfolio composition, industry comparisons, and internal review functions. 

The principal considerations for our determination that performing procedures relating to the valuation of the general reserve of the allowance for credit losses is a critical audit matter are (i) the significant judgment by management when determining the general reserve, which in turn led to a high degree of auditor judgment, subjectivity, and effort in performing procedures and evaluating audit evidence relating to the methodology and assumptions used to determine the general reserve, and (ii) the audit effort involved the use of professionals with specialized skill and knowledge.

Addressing the matter involved performing procedures and evaluating audit evidence in connection with forming our overall opinion on the consolidated financial statements. These procedures included testing the effectiveness of controls related to the valuation of the general reserve of the allowance for credit losses. These procedures also included, among others, testing management’s process for determining the general reserve, including evaluating the appropriateness of management’s methodology, testing the completeness and accuracy