Corporate governance

An opponent of affirmative action is challenging the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval of a rule to get more women and minorities on the boards of companies trading on Nasdaq.

The new standards give some 300 listed banks up to five years to meet targets for including women and minorities on their boards, or explain why they aren't doing so. State officials and investors had already pushed banks about the need to rethink their approaches to recruiting directors.

Steven Black was a board member of BNY Mellon when Wells CEO Charlie Scharf led the trust bank. He will become Wells Fargo’s fifth chairman in five years.

The deal would mark a first step in Chief Executive Jane Fraser’s plan to exit 13 retail markets across the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the Middle East.

Executives from Alliance Bernstein, Edward Jones and Kasisto discuss best practices and ways to improve the client experience.

The state's department of financial services is asking firms that it supervises to report information about the composition of their boards and senior leadership. It expects to publish aggregate findings in early 2022.

Banco Santander SA said it’s on track to beat a key profitability metric for the year with earnings from the U.S. and U.K. fueling the Spanish lender’s resurgence after historic losses linked to the pandemic.

The company has long focused on customers with ties to the two states. But as it emerges from the pandemic seeking new lending opportunities, CEO Rajinder Singh says, “We are looking at markets from Boston all the way down to Atlanta.”

As an investigation into its relationship with a former District of Columbia city councilman nears its end, the Maryland company has confirmed that Chief Financial Officer Charles Levingston has received a notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission signaling a potential enforcement action against him.

United Community Banks in South Carolina and Blue Ridge Bancshares in Virginia have each struck agreements to buy or merge with banks in major metropolitan markets, where they will aim to siphon business from larger rivals.