Zions Bancorp (NASDAQ: ZION) reported Q2 EPS of $0.34, $0.04 worse than the analyst estimate of $0.38.

Harris H. Simmons, Chairman and CEO of Zions Bancorporation, commented, “By most any measure, the past three months have been one of the most extraordinary periods in the Bank’s history. Despite having sent thousands of our employees to work from home through the pandemic, we swiftly responded to the urgent needs of over 46,000 small businesses - many of them new to the Bank - by providing them with Paycheck Protection Program loans totaling nearly $7 billion, making Zions one of the ten largest providers of PPP loans in the nation. At the same time, we’ve been conducting exhaustive credit reviews of our exposures in industries particularly hard hit by the economic impact of the pandemic and find ourselves generally quite encouraged by the resilience of our borrowers, the great majority of whom entered this time of stress with strong balance sheets and liquidity. We believe our tendency to engage in collateralized lending will further strengthen our ability to work with borrowers through this challenging time while moderating our credit losses. During the quarter we also maintained a strong focus on controlling operating expenses, which, when adjusted for the effects of the previously announced termination of our pension plan, decreased 5% from the second quarter a year ago.”

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