Fulton Financial's Angela Snyder plans to retire

August 8, 2025 3:01 PM

Angela Snyder is set to retire from her post as president of the Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based bank; Columbia Banking System in Tacoma, Washington, announces a closing date for its latest acquisition; Flagstar Financial opens its first private banking office in Florida; and more in this week's banking news roundup.

Fulton Financial’s president sets her retirement date

Angela Snyder plans to retire from her post as president of Fulton Financial at the end of the year, and the Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based company said it does not plan to fill the job.

Snyder's expected retirement on Dec. 31, 2025, will come nearly two years after she was named president of the company and its subsidiary, Fulton Bank. As president, she was put in charge of all lines of business and was responsible for cost optimization and organic growth, according to the press release the company wrote to announce her promotion.

Snyder joined the $32 billion-asset Fulton in 2002 as president of Woodstown National Bank and later served as chair, president and CEO of Fulton Bank of New Jersey, which was consolidated into Fulton Bank in 2019. Prior to being named president, she was Fulton's chief banking officer, a role that was filled by Andy Fiol earlier this year. —Allissa Kline

Columbia announces closing date for Pacific Premier acquisition

Columbia Banking System in Tacoma, Washington, expects to finalize its latest acquisition by the end of August, now that it has all of the regulatory approvals it needs.

The $51.9 billion-asset company's proposed $2 billion deal to acquire Pacific Premier Bancorp in Irvine, California, has received a thumbs-up from three regulators: the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services' Division of Financial Regulation, the company said this week in a press release.

All required shareholder and stockholder approvals related to the deal, which would be Columbia's second acquisition in three years, were received on July 21, the company said.

The addition of Pacific Premier, which will boost Columbia's assets to around $70 billion, will put the company in the top 10 for deposit market share across the vast region, it has said. —Allissa Kline

Flagstar

Flagstar opens first private banking office in Florida

Flagstar Financial opened its first private banking office in Florida this week, as part of an effort to tap into the state's expanding wealth market, particularly the South Florida region.

The Long Island-based bank, which is in transition mode, now has a ground-floor office at 230 Royal Palm Way in Palm Beach. The office is led by Michele Celestino, Flagstar's head of commercial and private banking in the Southeast, and a former senior managing director at First Republic Bank.

"Private banking is a core part of how we serve our clients and a key growth engine" for Flagstar, Mark Pittsey, Flagstar's new head of private banking and wealth, said in a press release.

Flagstar now has more than 20 offices that serve private banking clients, a company spokesperson said. Additional locations in San Francisco and New York City are expected to open by the end of the year, the spokesperson said. —Allissa Kline

Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg

Citigroup hires Guillermo Baygual from rival JPMorgan as co-head of M&A

Citigroup has appointed JPMorganChase's Guillermo Baygual as co-head of mergers and acquisitions in what is just the latest in a string of high-profile investment banking hires from its Wall Street rival.

Baygual will reunite with former JPMorgan colleague Drago Rajkovic to run Citigroup's M&A business, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News. Citigroup only appointed Rajkovic in June.

A spokesperson for Citigroup confirmed the contents of the memo.

Baygual has been one of JPMorgan's top investment bankers, and has held numerous senior roles during a more than 25-year career with the firm. Most recently, he served as global co-head of JPMorgan's infrastructure and strategic investors group.

The hire is yet another coup for Citigroup, which has been aggressively building up its investment banking business under JPMorgan alumnus Vis Raghavan, who switched over in 2024 to help win market share.

Both Baygual and Rajkovic will join Citigroup in September, the memo shows. Baygual will be based in London, while Rajkovic will split his time between New York and San Francisco. —Dinesh Nair, Bloomberg News

Marcia Moffat is leaving BlackRock in 2026

Christinne Muschi/Bloomberg

BlackRock Canada Head Marcia Moffat to leave firm in 2026

The head of BlackRock's Canadian unit, Marcia Moffat, will leave the firm next year, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News.

Moffat, who joined the asset manager in 2015, is stepping down as country head and will remain a senior advisor to help with the transition, the memo said. A BlackRock spokesperson declined to comment.

Under Moffat's leadership, BlackRock launched an alliance with Royal Bank of Canada, called RBC iShares, in 2019. It's Canada's top provider of exchange-traded funds, with 27% market share as of July 31, according to calculations by National Bank of Canada.

The memo also credited Moffat with helping to make BlackRock Canada's largest manager of pension assets.

Moffat was previously a board member with Manulife Bank of Canada and head of home equity financing with RBC, according to her LinkedIn profile. In April, BlackRock's head of iShares in Canada left the firm as part of a broader restructuring. —Melissa Shin, Bloomberg News

Bank of America hires Morgan Stanley’s Giardinelli as head of natural resources

Bank of America hired Morgan Stanley's Todd Giardinelli as head of natural resources and energy transition within the firm's investment banking unit, succeeding Ray Wood, who was elevated to global chair of the business.

Both will start in their new roles in November and be based in New York, according to a staff memo from global investment banking co-heads Alex Bettamio and Thomas Sheehan. A spokesperson for the bank confirmed the contents of the memo.

Giardinelli has more than two decades of investment banking experience, advising and arranging financing across the utilities and energy sectors, according to the memo. Most recently he was global co-head of power, utilities and renewables at Morgan Stanley.

Wood has more than three decades of investment banking experience, including 13 with Bank of America and 22 with Credit Suisse, according to his LinkedIn profile. —Katherine Doherty, Bloomberg News

HSBC hires John McDonald from UBS to oversee marketing

HSBC Holdings hired John McDonald from UBS Group to oversee its marketing efforts as it looks to become the world's largest wealth manager outside of the U.S. in the coming years.

McDonald was most recently group chief marketing officer at UBS and previously worked at Mastercard, according to his LinkedIn. He will join HSBC as chief marketing officer in October, according to a statement.

Under Chief Executive Officer Georges Elhedery, HSBC has been undergoing a massive restructuring of the bank's operations, establishing four new businesses as part of what he has called a "simplification" of its global network. As part of that, HSBC has joined Wall Street giants such as Goldman Sachs in focusing more on wealth management to help provide more stable profits.

McDonald joins HSBC "not only as we increase our focus on wealth, but as we accelerate growth, increase market share and build a distinctive brand," Barry O'Byrne, who leads the firm's international wealth and premier banking business globally, said in the statement. —Ronan Martin and Harry Wilson, Bloomberg News