| Basis of Presentation Significant ItemsFrom time to time, revenue, expenses, or taxes are impacted by items judged by Management to be outside of ordinary banking activities and/or by items that, while they may be associated with ordinary banking activities, are so unusually large that their outsized impact is believed by Management at that time to be infrequent or short-term in nature. We refer to such items as "Significant Items". Most often, these Significant Items result from factors originating outside the company - e.g., regulatory actions/assessments, windfall gains, changes in accounting principles, one- time tax assessments/refunds, etc. In other cases they may result from Management decisions associated with significant corporate actions out of the ordinary course of business - e.g., merger/restructuring charges, recapitalization actions, goodwill impairment, etc. Even though certain revenue and expense items are naturally subject to more volatility than others due to changes in market and economic environment conditions, as a general rule volatility alone does not define a Significant Item. For example, changes in the provision for credit losses, gains/losses from investment activities, asset valuation writedowns, etc., reflect ordinary banking activities and are, therefore, typically excluded from consideration as a Significant Item.Management believes the disclosure of "Significant Items" in current and prior period results aids analysts/investors in better understanding corporate performance and trends so that they can ascertain which of such items, if any, they may wish to include/exclude from their analysis of the company's performance; i.e., within the context of determining how that performance differed from their expectations, as well as how, if at all, to adjust their estimates of future performance accordingly. To this end, Management has adopted a practice of listing "Significant Items" in its external disclosure documents (e.g., earnings press releases, investor presentations, and Forms 10-Q and 10 K)."Significant Items" for any particular period are not intended to be a complete list of items that may materially impact current or future period performance. A number of factors could significantly impact these periods, including those described in Huntington's 2009 Annual Report on Form 10-K and other factors described from time to time in Huntington's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 188 |
