PHOENIX — Western Alliance Bancorporation recorded an $11 billion increase in year-over-year deposits, underscoring the financial services company’s strategy to prioritize liquidity over loan growth.
Phoenix-based Western Alliance (NYSE: WAL), a holding company that operates Alliance Bank of Arizona along with banks in Nevada and California, had “strong momentum” in the fourth quarter with “healthy earnings growth, sustained operating leverage and resilient asset quality,” Dale Gibbons, interim CEO of Western Alliance, said in a statement.
“With this stout liquidity foundation, we are well positioned to resume deploying future incremental deposits into more normal earning asset mix that prioritizes higher yielding loan growth while maintaining a low 80s loan-to-deposit ratio,” Gibbons added on the company's earnings call Monday with analysts.
Western Alliance recorded $66.3 billion in deposits during the fourth quarter, up from $55.3 billion in the prior year quarter.
