Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway exited a bet on Synchrony Financial during the first quarter as the company continued to pare back its investments in financial firms.
Berkshire reported Monday that it no longer held any shares in Synchrony, a bet that had totaled nearly $699 million at year-end, and trimmed its Wells Fargo holding to just over 675,000 shares as of March 31. It added shares in the insurance broker Aon, which is seeking to close a deal with rival Willis Towers Watson.
Warren Buffett.
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
Buffett’s company has spent the last year revamping its holdings in financial firms, sticking by a massive stake in Bank of America valued at $39.1 billion, while exiting investments in JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs Group. A more than three-decade investment in Wells Fargo, which once ranked as the company’s largest common stock bet, has been slowly disappearing in recent years and totaled just $26.4 million at the end of the first quarter.
Meanwhile, Berkshire has dug even deeper into the insurance brokerage industry. The bet on Aon, disclosed in a quarterly filing, comes just months after Berkshire revealed a stake in its rival Marsh McLennan. Aon and Willis Towers Watson have agreed to sell some assets to help ease regulatory concerns around their proposed combination. The Aon holding was valued at about $943 million at the end of the first quarter.
In February, Berkshire disclosed three bets, including the Marsh McLennan stake, that it had been building up in secret. The company then spent the first quarter taking those bets in different directions, ramping up its stake in Marsh McLennan and Verizon Communications while cutting a Chevron holding roughly in half.
Buffett and two of his key deputies, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, oversee investments for the conglomerate’s $282 billion stock portfolio. The firm ended up increasing two other bets — a stake in Kroger and a holding in the furniture company RH — during the first quarter.
The Charlotte-based megabank announced that it had appointed two business leaders to be co-presidents of the bank, and elevated its chief financial officer to serve as executive vice president.
The Massachusetts bank is being accused of aiding and abetting the operation of a Ponzi scheme centered in Hamilton, New York. The bank declined to comment on the allegations.
City National Bank promotes Brandon Williams to head private banking and wealth management; a former U.S. Postal Service letter carrier is sentenced to five and a half years for stealing over $10 million in checks from the mail; Lazard expands its North American investment banking franchise with two managing director hires; and more in this week's banking news roundup.
The government-powered network is allowing larger payments to settle instantly, a move The Clearing House has also made for its RTP network. Payment experts say more than higher limits are needed to make speedy processing ubiquitous.
The world's largest stablecoin issuer is preparing to launch USAT, its U.S.-regulated, dollar-backed stablecoin, by the end of the year, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino told reporters at an event in New York. Bo Hines was also named CEO of USAT.
