Latest banking news, Nov. 4, 2022

Mobile is banking channel No. 1 with consumers a third straight year

Female hands hold mobile banking on smart phone on blurred urban city as background

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Mobile remains the most popular banking channel among consumers, according to a survey conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of the American Bankers Association. For the third year in a row, mobile emerged as the top method people use for banking, at 45% of respondents. Online banking came next at 27%, followed by branch visits, which sit at 14%. Similar results emerged in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s biennial survey that measures the ways and degrees to which Americans access safe and affordable banking services. There, 43.5% of households said that mobile is the primary method they use to access their accounts, compared with 22% that chose online banking. — Miriam Cross

Visa fintech outreach program adds Rivero Software

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Visa's Fintech Partner Connect has added the digital payments technology firm Rivero Software, enabling Rivero to access a network of technology providers that the card brand has vetted. Rivero's products include Amiko, a fraud recovery and dispute management service; and Kajo, a compliance product. Rivero is the first Swiss firm to join Visa Partner Connect. Rivero co-founder Fatemeh Nikayin said in a news release that the Visa program will allow it to expedite its geographic expansion by reaching Visa's international network of issuers and the other programs in Visa's fintech network. — John Adams

NYCB covers Scope 1 and 2 emissions in climate task force's report

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New York Community Bank this week made its first greenhouse gas emissions disclosures based on industry standards from the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures reporting framework. The $63 billion-asset bank reported Scope 1 and 2 emissions but did not cover the more complicated Scope 3 disclosures, including supply chain and financed emissions. NYCB "contemplated an actionable framework to achieve sustainability goals" and is planning to "further estimate our carbon footprint," Thomas Cangemi, the bank's chief executive, said in its report. NYCB's inaugural TCFD disclosures comes as a growing number of banks seek to implement climate reporting processes ahead of potential disclosure rules that the Securities and Exchange Commission is considering for publicly listed companies. —Jordan Stutts

Mastercard adds new startups to crypto program

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A group of emerging cryptocurrency firms have joined Mastercard's Start Path, which offers support for companies that are developing new use cases for digital assets. The firms include Digital Treasures Center in Singapore, which allows merchants to pay, receive and transfer funds in crypto and other digital currencies. Fasset, based in Abu Dhabi, has built a digital-asset exchange; the U.S.-based Loot Bolt supports a blockchain-based social payments system; the U.S.-based Quadrata offers identity and reputational risk services; the Columbia-based Stable is a remittance startup; Dubai-based TBTM is a media-focused fintech that helps fund creators; and the U.S.-based Utop is a blockchain-supported CRM company. Start Path, which was formed in 2014, has provided consulting and advisory services to more than 350 companies from more than 40 countries, and has become part of the card brand's initiative to spot and encourage development of crypto and blockchain technology. — John Adams

Morgan Stanley to start job cuts in coming weeks, Reuters says

Morgan Stanley signage is displayed at their headquarters in New York.

Morgan Stanley expects to start a fresh round of global job cuts in the coming weeks, Reuters said, without specifying the scale of the reductions. In Asia, the bank has drafted a list of staff members considered redundant, who are mainly in teams that focus on China-related businesses, Reuters said, citing two unnamed people. Some cuts will come from capital markets teams in Hong Kong and mainland China, Reuters added, noting global cuts will be made around the same time. Another unnamed person told Reuters the bank has yet to make any decisions about the scale or timings of any layoffs, saying cuts weren't imminent and any reductions would represent a low-single digit percentage of global staff. A spokesperson for Morgan Stanley declined to comment. Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman hinted last month that job cuts might be coming as senior executives assess headcount at the Wall Street firm. "You've got to take into account the rate of growth we've had in the last few years," Gorman said in an October conference call with analysts after his bank reported third-quarter results. Job cuts are increasingly back on the table at various Wall Street firms. At Goldman Sachs, CEO David Solomon has resumed the firm's practice of periodically culling underperformers to make way for fresh talent. — Tom Metcalf, Bloomberg News

Citi, JPMorgan to help biggest Mauritius bank raise $3 billion

Citigroup Confronts Vaccine Holdouts In No Jab, No Job Mandate

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Mauritius Commercial Bank Ltd. plans to borrow as much as $3 billion over a 10-year period to shake up its balance sheet with a diversified portfolio of financial products.The program will include issuances of bonds, notes in dollars and euros and other currencies, if required, and with varying maturities — so long as they don't exceed $3 billion, said Alain Law Min, CEO of the Port Louis-based lender. It adds to a prior successful fundraising of $800 million in 2019, fully repaid, and $1 billion last year. "This aims to further support the business momentum of our international loan book expansion, diversifying our long-term dollar funding and contributing in enhancing the visibility of MCB and the jurisdiction on international debt capital markets," he said in an emailed response to questions. The initiative was established last week on the International Securities Market of the London Stock Exchange. Appointed dealers are Citigroup, Emirates NBD Capital, JPMorgan Chase and SMBC Nikko Securities. "We have witnessed extreme volatility in the debt capital market in the past few months and are hoping to see some improvements and some stabilization, which would allow us to plan issuances accordingly," Law Min said. "The first tranche may be expected for the third or fourth quarter of the financial year 2023." MCB, Mauritius' biggest lender by market share, is owned by MCB Group. — Kamlesh Bhuckory, Bloomberg News

Block shares climb on earnings beat, Cash App’s growth

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Block, the digital payments firm formerly known as Square, reported gross profit for the third quarter that exceeded analysts' expectations, boosted by an increase in business from retailers and restaurants using its sales products. Shares climbed more than 17% in after-hours trading. In the third quarter, gross profit, the company's profit before subtracting some costs like product development and marketing, was $1.57 billion, an increase of 38% over last year and better than the $1.52 billion analysts were projecting. Cash App, Block's consumer app for sending money to friends or buying stocks and cryptocurrencies, also reported gross profit up 51%. The company said it had its highest quarterly cash in-flow ever, meaning more people are depositing money into their Cash App accounts. The app now has 49 million monthly active users, up from 47 million last quarter. Block, which is run by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, traded as high as $63.61 after closing at $53.91. The shares have slipped 67% so far this year. — Kurt Wagner, Bloomberg News

Payment firms Airwallex, Paysera collaborate to reach more countries

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The fintech platform Airwallex has struck an agreement with the transfer service Paysera to allow Paysera's clients to transfer funds to 149 countries and support international bank accounts in nine countries. Airwallex's financial backers include Mastercard, which also uses Airwallex's technology to power Mastercard Send, the card brand's push payment feature. Tencent Holdings, the China-based technology giant that owns the digital wallet WeChat and payment app WeChat Pay, has also invested in Airwallex. —John Adams

Small businesses want more advice from their banks: Survey

Small businesses want more guidance from their banks on reducing banking fees, improving their financial situation and understanding how banking technology could improve their business, according to results from a J.D. Power survey of nearly 7,000 small businesses. Only 15% of small businesses receive comprehensive advice from their banks, the survey found. Citigroup, Capital One and Union Bank received the highest satisfaction scores for small-business banking. Almost two-thirds of small businesses reported struggling with inflation, and 44% said supply-chain disruptions have weighed on business. Small-business owners face "an increasingly ominous set of challenges," said Paul McAdam, senior director banking and payments intelligence at J.D. Power. — Orla McCaffrey

Goldman Sachs partners Kava, Crampton to retire from firm

Goldman Sachs partners Alan Kava and Chris Crampton are retiring from the firm at year-end, according to memos seen by Bloomberg News. New York-based Kava, 57, joined the firm in 1997, rising to managing director in 2002 and partner in 2008. He's currently chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management Real Estate in the Americas. Kava "has played an integral part in many key deals and fundraises and developed long-lasting relationships with many of our clients," Goldman's asset management co-heads Julian Salisbury and Luke Sarsfield wrote in one of the memos. They credited his leadership as the firm aimed to unify its real estate investment efforts, which have been housed across asset management, merchant banking, special situations and other groups. New York-based Crampton, 44, is set to join Blue Owl Capital in April as a managing director focused on raising continuation funds, a person with knowledge of the matter said. A Blue Owl spokesman declined to comment. Crampton joined Goldman in 2003, and became managing director in 2012 before being named partner in 2016. He "has played an important role in the development and expansion of our private equity business, having led or co-led our investing efforts in the Americas in the industrials vertical from 2016 to 2020 and the business services sector since 2020," Salisbury and Sarsfield wrote in a separate memo. Crampton represented Goldman on boards including Americold Realty Trust, GCA Services, Restaurant Technologies and Synagro Technologies, according to his LinkedIn profile. A Goldman spokesman confirmed the contents of both memos and declined to comment further. — Gillian Tan, Bloomberg News