Receiving Wide Coverage ... Changes at the top: Wells Fargo’s board of directors, amid a recent flurry of scandals unrelated to last year’s huge phony accounts debacle, is planning a major shake-up that will likely lead to Stephen Sanger leaving as nonexecutive chairman. Vice Chair Elizabeth Duke, a former Federal Reserve governor, is said to be in line to take his place. The changes are expected by Labor Day.
Elizabeth Duke, governor of the U.S. Federal Reserve, testifies at a Senate Banking Committee hearing on the housing market in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012. U.S. Senator Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama and the committee's chairman, questioned the fairness of a $25 billion mortgage servicing settlement, saying it "appears to come up short" for borrowers who wrongfully lost their homes. Photographer: T.J. Kirkpatrick/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Elizabeth Duke
T.J. Kirkpatrick/Bloomberg
“The bank has come in for repeated criticism over its decision to replace former chairman John Stumpf with Mr. Sanger, a longstanding corporate insider who was formerly lead director and has sat on the board for 14 years,” the Financial Times says. “Since his appointment in October 2016, he has encountered a series of setbacks in getting the bank back on track. He received backing from only 56% of votes cast at the bank’s stormy annual meeting this year.”
Home, sweet home: Two of the country’s largest rental-home owners, Blackstone Group’s Invitation Homes and Starwood Waypoint Homes, announced plans to merge in a deal that would create the largest private owner of single-family homes. The two combined own about 82,000 homes in 17 metro areas. The merged company will be known as Invitation Homes but will be led by Starwood CEO Fred Tuomi.
“This turned out to be a business,” Starwood chairman Barry Sternlicht said. “When we started out I think there were a lot of people who didn’t think it was a business. They thought it was a trade.” Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times
Wall Street Journal New deal: Barclaycard International hired Barry Rodrigues, recently head of digital payments in Citigroup’s global consumer bank, to run its international credit card operations. He replaces Amer Sajed, who retired last month. Rodrigues, who will join Barclaycard in November, spent more than 20 years at American Express before joining Citi in 2011.
Terror money: The FBI says an Islamic State operative in the U.S. ran money through PayPal using fake eBay transactions. According to a recently unsealed FBI affidavit, the American suspect pretended to sell computer printers on the internet site as a cover to funnel money to ISIS through PayPal.
New York Times Mmmmm, money: Despite complaints from vegetarians, the Bank of England announced Thursday that it will continue to use polymer to print its bank notes, including the £10 bill that debuts next month and the £20 note that rolls out by 2020. The five-pound note was introduced last year. Polymer notes are harder to counterfeit and more durable than cotton-based paper currencies, but polymer is made from rendered meat, and vegetarians object to its use.
“This decision reflects multiple considerations including the concerns raised by the public, the availability of environmentally sustainable alternatives, positions of our central bank peers, value for money, as well as the widespread use of animal-derived additives in everyday products, including alternative payment methods,” the BOE said.
Quotable “This is internet 3.0. I missed internet 2.0. I don’t want to miss this.” — Richard Brownstein, a 60-year-old financial adviser who is selling his business to get involved in digital currencies, at a recent rooftop party in Manhattan to celebrate Ethereum, “the latest cryptocurrency to soar and capture speculators’ imaginations.”
At a time of mild or nonexistent loan growth, middle-market borrowers in the Lone Star State are providing a boost to Fifth Third Bancorp and Huntington Bancshares.
New details have emerged about the negotiations that culminated in Capital One's blockbuster $35 billion agreement to acquire Discover. At one point last December, the two parties broke off discussions, according to a securities filing.
According to the Federal Reserve Board's latest financial stability report, persistent inflation and policy uncertainty are the primary worries for banks. Survey respondents expressed heightened anxiety over murky policy outlooks due to geopolitical turmoil and rapidly approaching domestic elections.
The Alabama regional lender says it expects expenses to taper off this year and anticipates challenged loans will gradually rise to historically average levels.
Truist Financial's top executive leadership team announces departures; First Horizon's chief credit officer is retiring; Ferry teams with Highnote to roll out a new Visa-branded payroll card; and more in the weekly banking news roundup.
The Dallas-based regional bank tapped a client for its co-pilot capabilities, where employees can message a bot instead of a human to get tech assistance.
