“First, I want to start by reiterating Paul's comment last quarter that we expect to see robust NII growth in 2022 compared to 2021.”

In context

“1.5 billion. So, focusing on the change on an FTE basis, net interest income increased $1.2 billion from Q4 '20 or 11%, driven by deposit growth and related investing of liquidity. NII versus Q3 of '21 was up $319 million, driven by deposit growth and then higher securities levels as well as loans growth. Premium amortization declined roughly $100 million to $1.3 billion in Q4, and the positive NII impact of lower premium amortization offset lower PPP fees. Given continued deposit growth and low rates, our asset sensitivity to rising rates remains significant. It's modestly lower quarter-over-quarter as long-end rates moved higher, and we recognized some of that sensitivity in our now higher reported level of NII. So, I'd like to give you a couple of thoughts on NII expectations for 2022. First, I want to start by reiterating Paul's comment last quarter that we expect to see robust NII growth in 2022 compared to 2021. That assumes we see continued loans growth and the rising rate expectations embedded in the forward curve. And in the first quarter specifically, we expect two headwinds. First, there are two less interest accrual days in the quarter. And as a reminder, we picked those back up in the subsequent two quarters. Second, we expect less PPP fee benefits. Combined, those two headwinds add to about $250 million. Despite those headwinds, we would still expect Q1 to be up about a couple of hundred million from Q4 and should grow nicely each subsequent quarter in 2022. Again, that's of course dependent upon the realization of the forward curve and some loans growth. Lastly, as we see the forward curve now expecting a new rate hiking cycle to begin, we added slide 13, as we thought it might be helpfu”