With all 10 wholesale sub-lines of business posting growth for the year.
2021 funded commercial loan production increased 50% versus 2020 and was up 40% versus 2019.
As a result, core transaction balances have increased 57% in the past two years.
At year-end, 77% of total deposits were core transaction deposits versus 70% at year-end 2020.
Ex-security gains non-interest revenues grew 5%, led by increases in core banking fees and income from various wealth businesses.
Drivers of this growth include a strong equity market, as well as net new assets under management from client growth, including the onboarding of 12 new family office clients during the year.
As of year-end, we have achieved $110 million in pre-tax run-rate benefit ahead of our original projections.
This year, we will transition our Synovus forward efforts into our overall strategic plan but remain committed and on pace to achieve the $175 million Synovus forward target.
We grew our treasury and payments team, which had another record-breaking year, growing sales by almost 40% and adding to specialty banking our middle market talent, and our high growth central and west Florida regions.
Despite the challenges associated with the pandemic, our recent voice of the team member survey indicated that 84% of our team members were actively engaged, which is top quartile relative to the financial services benchmark, and we have designated a great place to work by the Great Place to Work Institute.
Let's start on Slide 4 with loan growth, which increased $1.4 billion or an annualized 14% excluding P3.
The growth this quarter resulted from our second consecutive quarter of record-funded commercial loan production at $3.2 billion.
This represented a 30% increase from the third quarter.
The quality of growth as measured by risk ratings and underwriting metrics is consistent with the existing portfolio, which continues to perform well and is supported by the reversal of credit losses of $55 million this quarter.
It's a similar story on the other side of the balance sheet, with core transaction deposit growth of $1.3 billion or 4% versus the third quarter.
Approximately 30% of this quarter's increase came from non-interest-bearing deposits.
Net interest income growth was also strong this quarter, as we delivered $1.7 billion in earning asset growth.
Net interest income increased by $16 million from the third quarter or 4%, excluding the reduction in P.3 fees.
From a fee income perspective, we continue to be pleased with overall performance as the fourth quarter totaled $117 million.
Diluted earnings per share were $1.31 or $1.35 on an adjusted basis and increased from $0.96 or $1.08 adjusted per share from the same period in 2020.
During the fourth quarter, we successfully completed our capital plan with $33 million of share repurchases.
For the full year, we balanced core client loan growth, a common dividend, and $200 million in share repurchases to achieve our target CET1 ratio of 9.5% at year-end, which represents the middle of our operating range target for the upcoming year.
We ended the year with total assets of $57.3 billion and loans of $39.3 billion.
In the fourth quarter, total loans, excluding PPP balances, were up $1.4 billion, or 4% from the prior quarter, bolstered by strong commercial loan growth.
In Q4 was also supported by reduced pay-offs and increased C&I line utilization, which increased approximately 340 basis points to 43%.
We also saw continued growth in commitments up 4.4% or $512 million, which positions us well for economic expansion, particularly in the southeast, where growth is expected to exceed national averages.
A continued normalization of C&I line utilization on today's balance sheet would result in over $350 million in funding balances, which should occur over time as liquidity subsides.
In aggregate, core consumer balances declined by $20 million in the quarter.
Additionally, our securities portfolio ended the quarter at $11 billion, up $400 million from the prior quarter, though that growth generally dragged out of the overall balance sheet and remained at 19% of total assets.
As you can see, it was another very strong year for growth led by core transaction account balances, which were up $1.3 billion or 4% in the fourth quarter and up $5.1 billion or 16% for the full year.
For Q4, our total cost of deposits continued to decline to 12 basis points, which was down one basis point from the third quarter.
In the first quarter, we expect broker deposits to decline by approximately $1 billion to $1.5 billion as we efficiently manage our significant liquidity position.
Slide 7 shows a total net interest income of $392 million in the fourth quarter or $380 million, excluding the impact of the Paycheck Protection Program.
The net interest margin for the fourth quarter ended at 2.96%, a decline of five basis points from the prior quarter.
The portion of our portfolio that is floating rate now stands at 58%, which helps to support our NII sensitivity estimated at an increase of 6.5% for a 1% immediate increase in rates.
Adjusted noninterest revenue of $116 million is highlighted on Slide 8, up $2 million from the prior quarter.
This includes a one-time, $8 million increase of BOLI income that offsets a $4 million reduction in mortgage income.
On a full-year basis, NIR excluding security gains increased 5%.
Drivers of this growth included wealth management and core banking fees, which increased 24% and 20% year over year, respectively.
Within core banking fees, commercial cash management revenue increased $10 million, or 34% year over year.
Slide 9 highlights a total adjusted non-interest expense of $286 million, up $19 million from the prior quarter.
Recurring expense increases totaled $9 million and were driven by several factors, including growth initiatives related to Synovus forward, investments in tech and risk infrastructure, additional FDIC expenses, and expenses related to normalized travel and entertainment spending.
Other notable expense increases total $10 million and consisted of $4 million of incremental performance-based management bonuses, a $4 million seed gift into a newly established donor-advised fund, and a $2 million increase in health insurance expense driven by seasonal and pandemic related factors.
The net charge-off ratio fell 11 basis points to 0.11% while criticizing classified loans declined 16%.
The NPA ratio declined five basis points to 0.4% and the NPL ratio declined eight basis points to 0.33%.
Past dues dropped one basis point to 0.14% excluding the increase from Paycheck Protection Program loans.
There was a reversal of provision for credit losses, a $55 million in the fourth quarter, as further improvement in the economic outlook was partially offset by significant loan growth.
The ACL ratio, excluding PPP loans, declined 21 basis points to 1.21%.
In the fourth quarter, we executed the remaining $33 million of our 2021 authorization.
And in doing so, we ended the quarter with our CET1 ratio at 9.5%.
For the year, we retired 4.4 million shares or approximately 3% of the common shares outstanding from the end of the prior year.
That includes an increase in the quarterly common shareholder dividend by $0.1 to $0.34, which would first be payable in April.
While our two 2022 plan also includes an authorization for up to $300 million in share repurchases are capital priorities, our focus is on supporting core client growth, and managing our CET1 ratio around the target level of 9.5%.
Excluding the impact of $400 million in remaining P3 balances, we expect loan growth of 4% to 7% in 2022.
The adjusted revenue outlook of 4% to 7% largely aligns with the current rate expectations, assuming three FOMC rate hikes and excludes the impact of P3-related revenue.
Our adjusted expense outlook of 2% to 5% incorporates increases in compensation, a return to pre-pandemic travel and business development levels, and includes our strategic investments in talent and technology.
One significant efficiency initiative that is underway is the closing of an additional 15% of our branch locations, with an estimated run-rate savings of approximately $12 million by year-end.
Moving to capital, as Jamie shared earlier, we extended the upper range of our targeted CET1 ratio by 25 basis points, providing a new range of 9.25% to 9.75%.

Summary:
Diluted earnings per share were $1.31 or $1.35 on an adjusted basis and increased from $0.96 or $1.08 adjusted per share from the same period in 2020.