Truist completes sale of insurance unit; City National's new hire

May 10, 2024 3:31 PM

In today's weekly banking news roundup: Truist Financial completes the sale of its remaining stake in Truist Insurance Holdings; City National Bank has hired Rick Bechtel as executive vice president and head of mortgage and residential lending; Associated Bank names Chun Schiros as its first chief analytics officer; and more.

Truist completes sale of insurance unit, revises revenue guidance

Truist Financial completed the sale of its remaining stake in Truist Insurance Holdings and received after-tax cash proceeds of approximately $10.1 billion, the Charlotte, North Carolina, company said this week in a press release. Following the sale, Truist sold $27.7 billion of its lower-yielding investment securities and then reinvested part of the proceeds into shorter-duration, higher-yielding securities, a move that executives previously said they would take once the sale was finalized. The company said the sale proceeds and balance-sheet repositioning will add an estimated $710 million in net interest income for full-year 2024. As a result, Truist revised its revenue guidance upward and now expects revenue to decline between 0.5% and 1.5% for 2024, an improvement from the previously expected decline of 4% to 5%, it said.

Truist announced the sale of its remaining 80% stake in Truist Insurance in February. The company has said it would use the proceeds for three main purposes — repositioning the balance sheet, facilitating loan growth and repurchasing shares. — Allissa Kline

City National hires Rick Bechtel to expand home lending capabilities

City National Bank in Los Angeles has hired Rick Bechtel as executive vice president and head of mortgage and residential lending, with the intent to expand the company's home lending capabilities, it announced in a press release. Bechtel, who has more than three decades of experience in residential lending, joined City National on May 6 and reports to David Cameron, head of consumer banking, according to the release. In the newly created role, Bechtel will be in charge of developing and implementing a "comprehensive mortgage strategy" and will oversee residential lending sales, operations, capital markets and servicing teams, the release said. Bechtel most recently was president of mortgage at Compass Mortgage in Warrenville, Illinois. Prior to that, he was head of U.S. residential lending at TD Bank and head of U.S. mortgage lending at CIBC. City National is the U.S. arm of Royal Bank of Canada. — Allissa Kline

Associated Bank names Regions alum as first chief analytics officer

Associated Banc-Corp in Green Bay, Wisconsin, has hired Chun Schiros as its first chief analytics officer, where she will be tasked with improving its usage of data in retaining and deepening customer relationships. Schiros comes from Regions Financial, based in Birmingham, Alabama, where she served as head of enterprise data science and led the development of predictive models, advanced data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning products and more. She was recognized by American Banker in 2023 as one of its Most Powerful Women in Banking: Next, a set of awards for women under 40. Her appointment, announced on Wednesday, is part of Associated's multiyear strategic plan to improve talent and technology at the $41 billion-asset bank. —Miriam Cross

PNC makes moves to create private credit platform

PNC Financial Services Group is partnering with a Los Angeles-based asset management firm to offer private credit services to middle-market companies. The Pittsburgh-based bank and TCW Group, which have collaborated for more than 15 years, announced Monday that they're targeting $2.5 billion in investor equity capital to invest in the first year, which will be managed by a new team. PNC will tap its client relationships, while TCW will bring in its experience originating, underwriting and managing direct lending portfolios. The strategy will focus on delivering senior secured cash-flow and asset-based loans to both sponsored and nonsponsored companies.

"Combining the power and legacy of PNC's broad lending capabilities with TCW's private credit group will deliver significant benefit to companies seeking growth opportunities," said PNC Chairman and CEO Bill Demchak.

The private credit market has ballooned in the last year to $2.1 trillion globally, per the International Monetary Fund, increasing competition for Wall Street business among banks. PNC's move in the sector marks the latest as banks like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase seek to recover business lost to private credit providers. — Catherine Leffert

Lazard hires retired banker Michele Colocci for health care push

Lazard has hired former Morgan Stanley dealmaker Michele Colocci to spearhead its European health care expansion, according to people familiar with the matter.

Colocci will join the U.S. bank on June 3 as a vice chairman of investment banking and managing director in London, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the hiring isn't public yet.

The 60-year-old banker, who retired last year after a career spanning three decades, will help boost Lazard's health care franchise, which is led by David Gluckman in New York, the people said.

A Harvard Business School graduate, Colocci, was previously chairman of mergers and acquisitions at Morgan Stanley, where he also served as global co-head of health care investment banking. — Pamela Barbaglia, Bloomberg News

Blackstone hires Barclays leveraged finance co-head Blouin

Blackstone hired Tom Blouin, global co-head of leveraged finance at Barclays, as a senior managing director.

Blouin, whose hire was confirmed by a Blackstone spokesperson, started his new job this month in an origination role and reports to Chris Sullivan.

Blouin was promoted to global co-head of leveraged finance in 2023 along with Na Wei, who became sole head of the business earlier this year.

Blackstone has previously brought in talent from London-based Barclays. In 2021, the firm hired Sullivan as head of sponsor coverage for Blackstone Credit. — Gillian Tan and Paula Seligson, Bloomberg News

JPMorgan cuts at least seven investment-banking jobs in Asia

JPMorgan Chase has started a new round of layoffs in Asia, cutting at least seven more investment-banking jobs, according to people familiar with the matter.

The New York-based bank initiated the reductions this week, affecting mostly staff at vice president and associate levels in sectors including consumer, energy and health care, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter.

Rivals including Morgan Stanley, HSBC Holdings, UBS Group and Goldman Sachs Group have also cut jobs at their Asia investment-banking units over the past couple of years, as deal flows in China and Hong Kong dry up due to factors such as the sluggish economy and persistent political risks.

A representative for JPMorgan declined to comment.

JPMorgan already made two rounds of job cuts totaling about 50 positions in Asia last year, underscoring the challenges in the region. Still, the Wall Street bank recently promoted 48 employees to executive level in Asia, as well as more than 100 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. — Pei Li and Dong Cao, Bloomberg News