In June of 2021, Huntington bank completed its acquisition of Twin Cities-based TCF Financial, six months after the announcement of the $6 billion deal. Helga Houston's corporate risk team played a critical role in managing the acquisition process, which was especially difficult since, less than a year earlier, TCF had finished its own acquisition of Chemical Bank. With Houston's input, Huntington was successful in integrating more than 10,000 new employees during a time when most were still working remotely due to COVID-19 restrictions. The combined bank now has an estimated $175 billion in assets and $142 billion in deposits.
"I am most proud of how well we were able to integrate our TCF colleagues into Huntington, with a particular focus on driving our risk culture," Houston said. "At Huntington, we believe that everyone owns risk, so it is important for us to drive that responsibility and ownership at an individual level. Doing so while most of our colleagues were still remote was a new challenge, but one that was executed well."
Additionally, even throughout a year marked by extreme market volatility and a choppy economic recovery in the wake of the pandemic, Houston's guidance of the credit team led to a full-year net charge-off rate (representing debt unlikely to be repaid) of just .22% of average loans outstanding.
Houston also helped advance key programs at Huntington in 2021. For one, she helped guide the bank through its years-long transition away from LIBOR. She also helped to move the bank's climate risk program forward and engaged a third party for an exhaustive review of Huntington's whole risk management framework. Houston also led the compliance team through a thorough analysis of Huntington's five-year, $40 billion community plan, which aims to help lower-income populations gain access to items such as affordable housing and small-business loans.
Another role Houston holds at Huntington is as executive sponsor for the African American Business Resource Group (AABRG), one of several internal employee-driven groups formed to promote diversity and inclusion within the bank. Houston saw an opportunity to expand AABRG after the TCF acquisition, and the group now has leaders in all of Huntington's major markets. AABRG program themes over the past year include understanding the science of the COVID-19 vaccine, attaining economic self-sufficiency and coping with social injustices.
