Latest banking news, Feb. 17, 2023

New CFO for Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago

Virxhini Gjonzeneli

Virxhini Gjonzeneli has been named the chief financial officer of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago. Since 2017, she had been the executive vice president and group head of member support and strategy at the bank. She joined the bank in 2003 and worked in the credit group, then served as director of enterprise risk management. "I feel a personal passion and commitment to helping other immigrants — particularly supporting families with English as a second language and who need additional resources. I'm thrilled to continue building on this commitment in my new role," she said in a statement. — Chana R. Schoenberger

Visa CFO sets retirement for fall 2023

Vasant Prabhu

Patrick T. Fallon/Source: Bloomberg

Visant Prabhu, Visa's vice chairman and chief financial officer since 2015, will retire on Sept. 30, Visa announced Thursday. Prabhu will help with the search for a replacement and assist with the transition, the company said in a press release. The move comes a couple of weeks after the planned succession of Ryan McInerney, Visa's longtime president, to the role of CEO. He replaced Al Kelly, who is now executive chairman of the board. Prabhu previously served as CFO at nonfinancial corporations including Safeway and Starwood Hotels before a short stint at NBCUniversal immediately prior to joining Visa. — Kate Fitzgerald

Banesco USA opens new headquarters

Adobe Stock

Banesco USA opened a new headquarters and branch in East Doral, Florida, on Feb. 9. The three-story, 60,000-square-foot building will have 300 employees. With $3 billion of assets, Banesco USA is a Florida state-chartered bank with six locations in South Florida and Puerto Rico. The bank was founded in 2006 and focuses on commercial real estate, small and midsize companies and local professionals as clients. It appeared on the 2022 list of top 200 banks with assets of $2 billion to $10 billion. — Chana R. Schoenberger

Wirex expands crypto deal with Visa

A collection of bitcoin, litecoin and ethereum tokens.

The cryptocurrency payments platform Wirex has extended a global partnership with Visa, covering debit and prepaid crypto cards. The London-based Wirex has more than 5 million customers and previously worked with Visa to issue a crypto-enabled card that can be used to buy, hold, exchange and sell traditional and cryptocurrencies — and make payments across Visa's merchant network. The expanded partnership includes collaboration on payment use cases for blockchain technology in the U.S., Asia-Pacific, U.K. and Europe. An expanded crypto card program will be deployed in the coming weeks, Wirex said. Wirex is in the middle of a U.S. expansion that includes a partnership with Zero Hash, a Chicago firm that has a money-transmitter license. — John Adams

Senate credit union to eliminate NSF and overdraft fees

The U.S. Capitol Building in Washington.

Bloomberg News

U.S. Senate Federal Credit Union in Alexandria, Virginia, is doing away with charging members fees for overdrafts and nonsufficient funds. The $1.3 billion-asset institution announced it would eliminate the penalties for members by the second quarter, while developing a new offering to protect account holders from future discrepancies. "At USSFCU, we have always been about what is best for our members, and we never want to lose sight of that. … At the end of the day, it was an easy decision," Timothy L. Anderson, president and chief executive of the credit union, said in a press release Thursday. — Frank Gargano

U.S. Bank adds Mastercard for small-business travelers

Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

U.S. Bank has launched a small-business rewards credit card for frequent travelers. The new card, announced Thursday, marks the first Mastercard play within the Minneapolis bank's existing lineup of Visa-branded travel credit cards. The $95-a-year U.S. Bank Business Altitude Connect World Elite Mastercard enables customers to earn 5X cash-back rewards for lodging and car rental booked through U.S. Bank's rewards center; 4X rewards for general airfare and hotel bookings, along with gas and EV charging; 2X rewards for dining and cellphone service and 1X rewards for all other purchases. Customers may also transfer points earned with the small-business Mastercard to or from their personal Altitude Go or Altitude Connect credit cards, the release said. — Kate Fitzgerald

Credit Suisse names Hosie as head of global equities

A sign hangs outside the offices of Credit Suisse headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.

Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Credit Suisse has named Neil Hosie to lead the bank's global equities team, amid ongoing management turnover and restructuring at the investment bank unit. Hosie will be based in London and report to co-head of markets, Michael Ebert, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News that was confirmed by a spokeswoman. Hosie, who has been with Credit Suisse since 2017, was previously co-head of global equities alongside Doug Crofton, who is leaving to join Royal Bank of Canada in May. The advisory and markets activities at Credit Suisse's troubled investment-banking unit are being transformed into the stand-alone Credit Suisse First Boston brand under former board member Michael Klein. The unit has seen a string of senior banker exits in recent months across credit sales, debt capital markets and bond trading businesses. — Olivia Tam and Myriam Balezou, Bloomberg News