Banking news roundup

June 9, 2023 4:27 PM

Five Star Bancorp expands into San Francisco, American Express to integrate with data aggregators Plaid and Yodlee, Bank of America reworks leadership in its investment banking unit and more in this week's banking news roundup.

Five Star Bancorp expands into San Francisco

Five Star Bancorp said it will expand into San Francisco "to seize market opportunities." The $3.4 billion-asset bank in Rancho Cordova, California, said it already is serving customers in the San Francisco Bay Area, but it will formally establish a physical presence in the city and plans to drive growth there. It hired a team of commercial bankers that had worked for the former Signature Bank, which failed earlier this year. Five Star expects to open a loan production office in or near the San Francisco Financial District in the coming months. "We believe in San Francisco and have confidence in the region's robust talent pipeline and the strength of its diverse and competitive business environment," Five Star CEO James Beckwith said in a press release. — Jim Dobbs

Cooper Neill/Bloomberg

JPMorgan hires Moelis’s Tolani for midsize health care deals

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has hired Suraj Tolani as a managing director on its regional investment banking team to focus on middle-market U.S. health care services companies. Tolani spent 15 years at the boutique investment bank Moelis & Co. and will be based in New York, according to an internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg News. JPMorgan has been bulking up its regional investment-banking team, stationing bankers in growth cities to act as a sort of hybrid of the firm's corporate and investment bank, where its legacy commercial bank didn't have as big of a presence to provide M&A and underwriting advice to smaller companies. —Michelle F. Davis, Bloomberg News

Bank of Texas to enter San Antonio market

Bank of Texas, a division of the $46 billion-asset BOK Financial, said it will expand its operations into the San Antonio market, the first outside of the bank's established operations in Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston. Bank of Texas currently has 39 total locations and more than 900 employees. A new team in San Antonio will be led by Mark Johnson, market chairman, and Parker Hensley, market president. For the past 20 years, Johnson held executive positions with Texas Capital Bank, most recently as managing director and vice chairman. Hensley had been Amegy Bank's senior vice president and team lead for commercial and corporate banking in San Antonio. — Jim Dobbs

Bank of America reworks leadership in investment banking unit

Bank of America announced several leadership changes in its investment banking unit, including shifting responsibility for its global transaction services business to Mark Monaco. Monaco will assume responsibility for GTS in addition to his current role leading enterprise payments, the bank said in a memo to staff seen by Bloomberg News. Faiz Ahmad, former head of global GTS, will become co-head of global capital markets alongside Sarang Gadkari, according to the memo. "Bringing these areas more closely together supports our effort to drive these capabilities even further for our business, corporate and institutional clients in the U.S. and around the world," the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said. A representative for Bank of America confirmed the contents of the memo. Ahmad, who has led GTS since 2017, will continue to report to Matthew Koder, the bank's head of global corporate and investment banking, according to the memo. Monaco will report to Dean Athanasia, president of regional banking. — Katherine Doherty, Bloomberg News

American Express to integrate with data aggregators Plaid and Yodlee

American Express has signed agreements with data aggregators Plaid and Yodlee, a unit of Envestnet, to let users securely connect their accounts to fintech applications via application programming interfaces. The company announced these partnerships on Thursday. "This agreement reflects American Express' commitment to providing our customers with the security, control and transparency they want when sharing their account data with financial apps of their choosing," Danielle Cloud, senior vice president of enterprise data governance and platforms, said in a press release announcing the Plaid integration. American Express says the benefits to customers include security when sharing their financial information, real-time information sharing, transparency over where their data is going and easier sign-ons. —Miriam Cross

BofA, Barclays bankers said to be bolting for Jefferies

Ron Eliasek, a top software dealmaker at Bank of America, is joining Jefferies Financial Group, according to people familiar with the matter. Eliasek will likely start at Jefferies in the next few months, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. He was Bank of America's chairman of global technology, media and telecom investment banking and global co-head of software. Jefferies has been on a hiring spree lately and recently brought on some senior bankers from Barclays Plc. Industrials banker Mark Hudson has joined others from Barclays making the move to Jefferies, said a person familiar with that matter who asked not to be identified. Responding to a request for comment on Hudson's departure, a spokesperson for Barclays said in an emailed statement, "In investment banking we announced a new leadership team in the first quarter and we expect and plan for natural attrition when changes occur." Representatives for Bank of America and Jefferies declined to comment. — Liana Baker, Bloomberg News