Trustmark expects overdraft, other fee reductions to be offset

Jackson, Miss.-based Trustmark Corp. plans to implement changes to its overdraft and nonsufficient funds policies late in the fourth quarter or early in the first quarter of next year, said President and CEO Duane Dewey.

In March, subsidiary Trustmark National Bank announced plans to reduce consumer checking account fees such as nonsufficient funds fees and overdraft charges by the end of the year.

"We believe the [nonsufficient funds] issue will be roughly 10% or less of overall [overdraft] or [nonsufficient funds] total charges forward-looking," Dewey said on a call April 27 to discuss first-quarter earnings. "We're still working on the de minimis level. We've not quite finalized our position on that issue."

Branch closures and expense reduction across processes are expected to more than offset these changes, Dewey added.

Also during the call, Principal Financial Officer and Treasurer Thomas Owens predicted the impact on net interest income from the Federal Reserve's expected hikes in the fed funds rate.

"So we did increase our guidance to low double-digits, year-over-year growth in net interest income" excluding the Paycheck Protection Program, Owens said. "That increase in guidance from the prior guidance of mid-single digits reflected the substantial increase in market interest rates experienced in the first quarter, as well as the increase in market-implied forward interest rates as a result."