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King appears on CNBC’s 'Power Lunch'

BB&T Chairman and CEO Kelly King appeared on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” to discuss the mortgage market, trends in consumer and industrial loans, and what to expect with government regulation going forward.

CNBC Anchor: We want to ask you – if you can tell us – we're reminded recently by the weaknesses in Sherwin Williams and Home Depot. What is going on in the mortgage market right now?

Kelly King: The market is slower, as you know, from a year or so ago. Consumers have been trying to adjust to the increased interest rates. Although, as you know, rates have come back down in the mortgage area now. We're seeing a huge increase in refinancing again, believe it or not. Our refinancing activity is about 45% of our volume versus 90 days ago it was about 20%. That's helping consumers by being able to refinance and get their payments down to a lower level. There's certainly more skepticism in terms of taking on new housing acquisitions at this point. We think that's somewhat temporary. It's the time of the year. There's certainly some nervousness in terms of what's going on around the marketplace. But it is slower. We personally think it'll be picking back up in the spring.

CNBC Anchor: It's interesting, just in the last few days, few weeks, you're seeing a bigger boost from refinancing than back in October/November and that's what Sherwin Williams said, too. What else outside of the mortgage market, in terms of your consumer and industrial loans? Again, we don't have a ton of data from the government right now, so we're really relying on you guys to tell us what's happening out there.

Kelly King: It's interesting. I said this morning on our earnings call that the real economy – I distinguish the real economy in terms of what consumers and business are actually doing versus all that people speculate about, existential events, etc. – the real economy is still very solid in the consumer space and business space, particularly, where we do most of our business, which is on Main Street. Optimism is high. People are still spending. Our pipelines are still good. We had very strong loan growth in the fourth quarter – 3.6%. I would say right now it is good. There's certainly some chatter about what's going on around the shut down and trade talks, etc. That has not yet stymied business activity. At some point, we could talk ourselves into a reduction in actual business activity but that's not happening yet.

CNBC Anchor: Kelly, Maxine Waters is now at the helm of the House Financial Services Committee and has already said in her speech that she will be going after big banks or be giving them a hard time. Now you guys aren't that big, but what do you think is coming at you regulatory-wise?

Kelly King: We've heard some of that and we hope to spend some time with Mrs. Waters helping her understand better the big banks are not the enemy. The small banks are not the enemies. We really are trying to help the economy grow. We're trying to create jobs. We're trying to do exactly what she wants us to do, which is provide a better way for her constituents and all the citizens of our country to live happily and do well economically and financially. So we have to spend some time helping her see the vast majority of financial institutions in this country really didn't do anything wrong in the crisis, aren't doing anything wrong today, really are productive in terms of helping the economy grow, and we think we'll be successful at that.

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