First Horizon COO Tammy LoCascio Named to Watch List

American Banker recognized the Memphis-based executive for her leadership in the financial services sector.

Updated on Oct. 1, 2026 in Financial Services

First Horizon COO Tammy LoCascio Named to Watch List

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American Banker has named First Horizon senior EVP and COO Tammy LoCascio to its 2026 Women to Watch list. LoCascio, who has a 36-year banking career, has served as COO of the Memphis-based institution since 2021.

Why it matters

The recognition highlights LoCascio's role in guiding First Horizon through significant structural changes, including the aftermath of a terminated merger with TD Bank in 2023. Her leadership has focused on internal initiatives, such as promoting artificial intelligence adoption among the bank's 2,712 employees.

First Horizon reported wholesale banking revenue of $589.5 million and pretax, preprovision income of $169.4 million for 2025. During this period, the bank also saw a 35% increase in mortgage warehouse lending balances while reducing fraud expenses by 50%.

The players

Tammy LoCascio

She is the senior EVP and COO of First Horizon who has maintained a career in the banking industry for 36 years.

First Horizon

Headquartered in Memphis, this financial institution manages $83.9 billion in total assets and employs 2,712 people.

American Banker

This trade publication provides news, analysis, and research covering the financial services and banking industry.

The details

Under LoCascio, the bank encouraged staff to innovate through an internal contest that generated over 100 artificial intelligence integration ideas. This initiative led to the development of an automated documentation platform for commercial real estate loan origination and helped keep technology spending 6% under budget.

Timeline

  1. 2019: First Horizon and IberiaBank completed a merger.

  2. 2021: LoCascio became COO of First Horizon.

  3. 2023: First Horizon and TD Bank abandoned a merger.

  4. 2025: LoCascio initiated an AI workflow contest.

Market Landscape

This leadership recognition reflects First Horizon's transition toward independent operational efficiency following the 2023 terminated merger between First Horizon and TD Bank. The bank is currently focusing on internal technological scaling to compete with larger financial institutions.

The bank's focus on operational efficiency and AI-driven workflow automation aims to streamline commercial loan origination services. Customers may experience faster processing times for commercial real estate financing as these internal technology initiatives are fully implemented.

The takeaway

Empowering employees to drive internal innovation can be a potent alternative to top-down digital mandates for mid-sized banks. Focusing on workflow efficiency allows institutions to optimize technology budgets while maintaining competitive growth in niche lending sectors.

What happens next

First Horizon plans to launch new commodity hedging capabilities within its capital markets business later this year.

Further reading

For additional context on local industry developments, see Financial Services.

Source note: This article includes information reported by American Banker.

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