Jennifer Lassiter joins Standard Chartered as head of digital assets, Europe

May 16, 2025 3:32 PM

In this week's banking news roundup: Standard Chartered Bank hired a new head of digital assets, Europe and Americas; Provident Financial Holdings has a new chief financial officer; Bank of America is opening four branches in Boise, Idaho; and more.

Roundup slide on Jennifer Lassiter, who joined Standard Chartered.

Standard Chartered’s new head of digital assets is NYC-based

Standard Chartered Bank in London has hired Jennifer Lassiter as head of digital assets, Europe and Americas, the company said in a press release. Lassiter, who is based in New York City, reports to Rene Michau, global head of digital assets, the company said.

At Standard Chartered, Lassiter will lead the company's digital assets initiatives in Europe and the Americas. The role is newly created, a Standard Chartered spokesperson said in an email.

Lassiter joined Standard Chartered from the Digital Dollar Project, where she served as the executive director of the privately funded nonprofit organization, which focuses on digital modernization of the U.S. dollar. She is also a founding member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s Office of Innovation Tech Lab and worked at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in technology and innovation, according to her LinkedIn profile. —Allissa Kline

The letters CFO about a wooden sign that says "chief financial officer."

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Provident Financial Holdings hires new CFO

Provident Financial Holdings, owner of Provident Savings Bank, has hired Peter Fan as its chief financial officer, succeeding Tam Nguyen, who left the company in February.

Fan previously served as director of finance and treasury at Royal Business Bank since February 2024, the bank said in a Monday press release. Before that, Fan was senior vice president of finance at Pacific Western Bank from April 2014 to February 2024.

"Peter brings a wealth of financial leadership experience, acquired throughout his banking career, particularly with strategic corporate initiatives, liquidity and capital planning, asset-liability management, budgeting, and forecasting," President and Chief Executive Donavon Ternes said. "Peter, together with his colleagues at Provident, will continue our community banking focus."

Fan is Provident's third CFO in a little more than two years. Nguyen took the job when long-time finance chief Ternes was promoted to CEO on Jan. 1, 2024. Nguyen is now with Stearns Bank as its CFO. —Mary de Wet

Bank of America expands retail presence into Boise

Bank of America will open four branches in the Boise, Idaho, metro area, as part of the company's multiyear march into regions where it seeks greater market share.

The first Boise office will open in Nampa, Idaho, on June 9, Bank of America said in a press release. All four offices will open within the next two months, Will Smayda, Bank of America's head of financial centers, told American Banker. The bank used to have a branch presence in Boise but retreated due to cost-cutting following the financial crisis, Smayda said.

Bank of America previously identified Boise as a retail-branch expansion market, along with Louisville, Kentucky; Madison, Wisconsin; and New Orleans. It plans to open more than 150 branches across 60 markets by the end of 2027, while continuing to close branches in other markets. Through April 30, the bank had 3,700 U.S. branches, down from 4,300 in 2020, according to regulatory filings. —Allissa Kline

Antalpha prices IPO, starts trading

Antalpha, a Singapore-based crypto fintech company, priced its initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Market exchange at $12.80 a share.

The shares began trading Wednesday under the ticker symbol ANTA. By Friday morning, the share price had risen 1.3% to $12.96.

The company had planned to raise between $49.3 million and $56.7 million from the offering. Antalpha said it would use the proceeds for loan operation and customer funding advance needs, investment in bitcoin and gold, and other general corporate purposes.

Antalpha said it provides liquidity and risk management solutions to institutional bitcoin miners.

"As the primary lending partner of Bitmain, Antalpha offers supply chain and margin loans through the Antalpha Prime technology platform, which allows customers to originate and manage their digital asset loans, as well as monitor collateral positions with near real-time data," the company said in a press release Wednesday. —Mary de Wet

USAA recruits chief risk officer from Comerica

USAA said it has hired a new chief risk officer — Brian Goldman, the current chief risk officer at Comerica — who will start at the San Antonio, Texas-based company on May 27.

Goldman, who joined Comerica in late 2023 and previously worked at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, will succeed Neeraj Singh, one of several USAA executives who left the company last year amid a management reshuffle. Singh was later hired as chief risk officer at M&T Bank in Buffalo, New York.

Goldman's pending departure means that Comerica is on the hunt for a new chief risk officer for the second time since 2023. Goldman was hired by Dallas-based Comerica to succeed Jay Oberg, who retired from the $77.6 billion-asset company. Melinda Chausse, Comerica's chief credit officer, will assume the chief risk officer duties on a temporary basis, the bank said. —Allissa Kline

BOK Financial rolls out a new mortgage finance business

BOK Financial in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has launched a mortgage finance business whose initial flagship offering will be warehouse lending to serve independent mortgage brokers.

The mortgage finance team will be led by Donnie Martin, the company said in a press release. Martin joined BOK last fall from City National Bank, according to his LinkedIn profile. He previously worked at Fifth Third Bancorp, Texas Capital Bancshares and JPMorganChase.

The new business is part of BOK's focus on building deeper relationships with mortgage banking customers, Martin Grunst, BOK's chief financial officer, said in a press release.

BOK is a top 10 dealer of mortgage-backed securities, offering trading liquidity, treasury management platforms and other services to the mortgage banking industry. Adding mortgage finance to the lineup "will create a full-service ecosystem" to meet mortgage clients, the company said in the release. —Allissa Kline

JPMorgan’s City of London office vandalized

A JPMorganChase office in the City of London has been defaced, making it the latest firm in the Square Mile to draw protesters over the past few years.

The revolving glass doors of the Blackfriars complex, which houses the U.S. bank's asset and wealth management division, were shattered and red paint was sprayed on the exterior walls of the building. The main London office in Canary Wharf wasn't affected.

While no group has yet claimed responsibility, it is similar to protests by both pro-Palestine and climate activists the City has seen in recent years.

Barclays' office was vandalized last year by Palestine Action group protesting the lender's ties to Israel. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside Standard Chartered's London office in 2021 and sprayed the building with red paint.

A spokesperson for JPMorgan declined to comment. —Meg Short and Priscila Azevedo Rocha, Bloomberg News

Citi sells wealth alternatives platform

Citigroup agreed to sell a unit that advises its global alternative investment fund platform, which represents more than 180 funds, to technology provider iCapital.

Terms of iCapital's deal to buy the Citi global alternatives business weren't disclosed, according to a statement Tuesday. ICapital will manage and operate the fund platform, while Citi remains the distributor, offering guidance to its clients on the role of alternative investments.

The platform comprises a range of alternative investment strategies and asset classes, including private equity, growth equity, private credit, infrastructure, venture capital, real estate and hedge funds.

"We will enhance Citi Wealth's global sales capabilities with a dedicated alternative investment specialist team, equipping advisers with more resources focused on pre-sale, sale and post-sales investment activities," iCapital Chief Executive Officer Lawrence Calcano said. —Steve Dickson, Bloomberg News

Deutsche Bank promotes Sam Kim to lead global M&A business

Deutsche Bank has named Samuel Kim as its global head of mergers and acquisitions, taking over from Alison Harding-Jones who recently took up a more senior role at the firm.

Kim will be relocating to New York for the new role, effective June 1, according to a statement reviewed by Bloomberg News. He joined Deutsche Bank in 2023 as chairman of M&A for Asia Pacific and also became chief country officer for South Korea last year. The veteran banker will report to Harding-Jones.

Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, Kim spent 24 years at Morgan Stanley, most recently as chairman of M&A for APAC. During his tenure at the American investment bank, he also held other senior Asia roles including head of M&A and vice chairman of investment banking. He also had a stint at Salomon Brothers in New York. —Swetha Gopinath, Bloomberg News

BofA promotes Jeff Tannenbaum to lead European dealmakers

Bank of America named Jeff Tannenbaum the new head of corporate and investment banking across Europe, the Middle East and Africa as part of a slew of changes in the Wall Street bank's international division.

Tannenbaum is replacing Jim O'Neil, who is taking a role in the U.K. government, according to a memo to staff seen by Bloomberg. He will join the global corporate and investment banking and EMEA executive committees at the firm, the memo said.

The bank will shift all of its country executives in both the EMEA region and Canada under Bernie Mensah, head of the firm's international division.

Tannenbaum joined BofA as an intern in 1998, taking on various trading and capital markets roles before leading the firm's fixed income syndicate desk in New York from 2006, according to the memo. He returned to London in 2009 and eventually was named head of EMEA capital markets in 2020. —Katherine Doherty, Bloomberg News

Barclays picks Thakur to head investment banking in Asia Pacific

Barclays has named Avinash Thakur as head of investment banking for Asia Pacific, replacing Vanessa Koo, who is retiring. Thakur, who joined Barclays in 2011, will be based in Hong Kong and join the APAC executive forum, according to a memo seen by Bloomberg News.

Thakur's new role is effective immediately. He was most recently head of capital markets financing in APAC.

Barclays highlighted in October its goal to increase market share in areas such as equity capital markets and mergers and acquisitions advisory. It ranks fifth in the league tables for M&A and ECM advisory globally this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Koo joined Barclays in 2010 and became head of APAC investment banking in January 2019. She has decided to retire from the bank to spend more time with family and take a career break, according to the memo. —Manuel Baigorri, Bloomberg News