Old National bullish on growth prospects for new wealth business

Old National Bancorp has high hopes for its new wealth management business, even with an outlook for economic tumult.

The company recently launched its new wealth management arm, titled 1834, which provides services for high net worth clients.

"We do have high expectations that that will grow kind of above our historic norms in that business despite ... market conditions," CEO Jim Ryan III said on a call to discuss fourth-quarter 2022 earnings. "We have pretty high expectations around our ability to grow that organically."

The new business line will not drastically increase head count or employee expenses because it already had much of the staff it needed to get the business off the ground, Ryan said.

The company's bullish outlook for the new business comes even with growing economic uncertainty and the potential for a recession.

"It's a little too early to want to jump in that. I think we need to have more clear picture of economic outlook, any issues related to credit out there," Ryan said when one analyst asked about capital deployment. "I think we need to have a much clearer picture before we want to jump on top of that."

One area of potential capital deployment the bank is open to is M&A, but only if the right opportunity were to arise. The company closed its merger of equals with First Midwest Bancorp Inc. almost one year ago.

"We'll continue to have active conversations and dialogues. But I can tell you, it's not top of mind for us to think about wanting to do something right now," Ryan said. "We're going to stay focused on organic growth and building out our teams with new talent. And then if the right partner comes along and it's the right fit and timing for us, we'll take a look at it. But there's a lot of ifs in there before we think about doing our next partnership."