How are you all thinking about that? We know

both is important, and I think that's our advantage.

When you think about Savannah, we have 14 financial centers in Savannah.

We've been here for over 100 years, so we're very committed to this community.

We're not new coming because all this investment.

We have been here, as you said.

You've been here too for a while.

What else are you hearing from business customers or what they're, asking their bank to deliver for them.

How is Bank of America staying competitive as more non-bank lenders have assumed market share with faster loan approvals and more competitive rates?

You know, we are the number one lender to businesses in the U.S. We have nearly $50 billion in loans outstanding to small and mid-sized companies.

And so as you think about our portfolio of clients that we're lending to, we have tremendous impact in the communities.

And so I'm proud of the work we're doing here at the company.

to provide access to capital.

And absolutely, we will always have competition in the marketplace.

But what differentiates us is, you know, a lot of the fintechs are what you suggested with faster online or getting, they don't have the people that we have.

small businesses?

Yeah.

We went through all different types of crisis.

And you've gotta look at the data, versus what people are saying.

And so, we do see in our data, and we, you know, we look at all areas of the country, the Northeast has not fared as well as the South.

There you go.

And so, as you think about what's actually happening, from region to region, industry to industry, it's not all the same.

But I would see, overall, the health of business is strong.

How do you get a decent idea of whether those CapEx decisions are being delayed, pushed back or just totally derailed? Which one do you think it is at the moment?

I think it's delayed.

I think it's a wait and see attitude where you're still seeing people spending on their business, albeit not as strong as we had seen last year.

So there is some wait and see out there because they don't know what's going to happen.

And so as I'm talking to clients around the country, that's what I'm hearing as well.

We do want to expand.

We do want to invest in our business.

Now, if you go into a wait-and-see economy, how long before you start to say, we're not going to hire, we're going to fire? Is there a lag time? Is there a typical framework timeline to think about this? Or are we in no man's land?

What's the standout? What industry has been very strong at the moment?

Well, we are seeing strength in retailers, with the exception of furniture.

But restaurant spending is strong.

We are seeing strong strength in, you know, shopping, um, going in- out to eat, all of those types of, uh, retailers, e-commerce.

So I think that there's some trends there.

And so you have to see what the data's telling you, not necessarily what the consumer is telling you.

How do you get a decent idea of whether those CapEx decisions are being delayed, pushed back, or just totally derailed? Which one do you think it is at the moment?

I think it's delayed.