Most of the Q&A is predictable
I logged 2,225 analyst questions from 119 regional bank earnings calls. Most of what gets asked can be seen coming, and that changes how a bank should prepare.
Over eight quarters, from the third quarter of 2024 through the second quarter of 2026, I read the analyst Q&A on every earnings call at 16 large regional banks and tagged each question by topic. That came to 119 calls and 2,225 questions. The patterns were clearer than I expected.
The same question, everywhere, the same week
Most sell-side analysts cover ten or more banks, and earnings season compresses into about two weeks. So a worry becomes a scripted question, asked on every call that week with only the company detail changed. In the first quarter of 2025, one analyst asked about tariff exposure at seven different banks. Two quarters later, after fraud-related losses on loans to non-bank financial companies, the same analyst asked four banks about their reviews of that lending.
The largest banks go first, and their themes travel
The money-center banks report a day or two before most regionals, so their Q&A is a preview. Analysts sometimes say so out loud, opening a regional bank question with a reference to what the large banks were asked the day before. Reading those calls is the single most useful hour of preparation before your own.
Some analysts ask the same thing every quarter
A few analysts return to the same company-specific topic call after call. One asked a single bank about its exposure to non-bank lenders on four consecutive calls. At another bank, analysts asked for an update on a profit-improvement program every quarter after it was announced.
When an analyst asks the same question four quarters running, the disclosure is the problem, not the analyst. A standing table in the earnings slides answers it before it's asked.
One more pattern: colleagues often ask on a lead analyst's behalf, and the question still follows the lead analyst's pattern. Track by firm, not by voice.
The themes move fast
| Theme | Q3 2024 | Peak | Q2 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tariffs and macro risk | 0% | 18% (Q1 2025) | 0% |
| Lending to non-bank financials | 1% | 10% (Q3 2025) | 1% |
| Mergers and acquisitions | 1% | 12% (Q3 2025) | 4% |
| Deposit costs and betas | 12% | 16% (Q2 2026) | 16% |
| Loan-spread compression | 3% | 10% (Q2 2026) | 10% |
| Technology and AI | 1% | 6% (Q2 2026) | 6% |
A topic can go from nothing to a tenth of every call in one quarter and fade just as fast. Banks that prepare from last quarter's questions alone will be a quarter behind.
What it means for preparation
For the bank I studied most closely, about two-thirds of each call could be predicted from two inputs: each analyst's own pattern at that bank, and what they had just asked at the large banks and at peers. That makes preparation an analytical job rather than a guessing game.
- Build the question map before every call: the likely questions, the likely askers, and the data that answers each.
- Move recurring questions into standing disclosure, so the call can be spent on what's new.
- Answer this quarter's predictable questions in the prepared remarks. A question answered before it's asked doesn't move the stock.
- Keep a separate plan for news. If the company is announcing something, the map changes.
Where the pattern breaks
Predictability has a limit. When a bank announces something significant, analysts drop their usual topics and the call becomes about the news. Topic forecasts still hold up reasonably well; forecasts of who will ask what mostly don't. Preparing for that day is a different exercise: the five or six questions any strategic move will draw, answered in the release and the slides before the call begins.
Sources
- Author's question log: 2,225 analyst questions on 119 earnings calls at 16 large regional banks, Q3 2024 to Q2 2026. Topic tags applied by a single reader, so percentages show direction rather than precise measurement.
- Transcripts: Investing.com
- Transcripts: The Motley Fool
- Transcripts: Benzinga
- Transcripts: MarketBeat