Citi, JPM Tap New Tech Execs; First Republic Goes for the Gold

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Musical tech chairs: Citigroup named Gavin Michael, American Banker's Digital Banker of the Year, its head of technology for global consumer banking. Michael, head of digital for consumer and community banking at JPMorgan, will replace Mark Torkos, who retired in July. Michael will assume his new role in November. Bill Wallace, who was head of operations for JPMorgan's consumer bank, was named to replace Michael. The two announcements follow the departure of Heather Cox, chief executive of Citi FinTech, who is joining USAA as chief technology and digital officer later this year.

Wall Street Journal

The Ferrari of the banking world: First Republic Bank has built a lucrative business by catering to the rich, the paper says. The San Francisco-based bank has jumped from a small thrift to the lender of choice for the likes of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In the process, its stock has gained 184% over the past five years, while its assets have climbed to $65 billion from less than $4 billion in 2000.

But is it ignoring lower-income black and Hispanic borrowers in the process? More than 90% of its 2014 mortgage approvals went to high-income customers but only 0.5% to blacks and 2.2% to Hispanics, according to the paper. The bank says there is no conflict in its strategy and that it has a "strong, affirmative outreach to serve low-income and minority communities."

Clearinghouse shortcomings: The International Organization of Securities Commissions and the Bank for International Settlements' Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructure said financial clearinghouses still have inadequacies in their risk-management and recovery practices, which could have global ramifications in the case of default. The two agencies said several clearinghouses have yet to put in place required recovery plans.

Financial Times

Moody's stress-tests U.K. banks: Royal Bank of Scotland is the bank most vulnerable to a downturn in the U.K. commercial property market resulting from Brexit, according to Moody's. The rating agency said Britain's biggest banks are better able to handle a property crisis after reducing their exposure to commercial real estate since 2010, but the six biggest lenders would still suffer £12 billion of losses over two years in a hypothetical stress test.

RBS cancels tech contract: Speaking of RBS, the bank cancelled a $300 million contract with Indian technology company Infosys after scuttling plans to launch Williams & Glyn as a standalone bank. Infosys said it will "ramp down" about 3,000 jobs as a result. The technology firm was assisting the bank in creating and testing systems "that would underpin Williams & Glyn as a separate 'challenger' bank."

New York Times

Barclays sticks to its core: From currency manipulation to Brexit to corporate downsizing, Barclays has had a lot to deal with over the past several years. But CEO James E. Staley, who joined the U.K.-based bank late last year, is confident the bank's core strength is better than many of its competitors.

The core of the "new" Barclays are its U.K. consumer bank and its trans-Atlantic investment bank, which are about twice as profitable as the rest of the bank. Staley has accelerated the sale of businesses the bank no longer considers essential.

Bankruptcy for banks?: Law professors Mark J. Roe and David A. Skeel Jr. argue that a bankruptcy-for-banks bill, recently passed by the House of Representatives and sent to the Senate, is a good idea—although the measure needs some tweaking.

"In concept, bankruptcy for banks makes sense," the two write. If banks can be reorganized in bankruptcy, a big bank could be restructured without damaging the economy or a bailout. "But the bill in play has several dangerous features that could make bailouts more likely, not less likely," they add.

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