New team: HSBC Holdings named AIA Group head Mark Tucker as its next chairman, the first time the bank has filled that role from the outside in its 152-year history. Tucker, who will join the bank in the fall, will succeed outgoing chairman Douglas Flint. One of Tucker's first orders of business will be to find a replacement for CEO Stuart Gulliver, who is expected to leave the bank next year. Tucker's appointment "is the first step in refreshing the bank's leadership and setting out its next set of goals," the Wall Street Journal said. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times
Rejected: The Securities and Exchange Commission Friday rejected an application by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss to create an exchange-traded fund tied to the price of bitcoin. The agency said it turned down the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust because the markets where bitcoin is currently traded are unregulated, which raised "concerns about the potential for fraudulent or manipulative acts and practices in this market." Bitcoin prices immediately dropped on the news before subsequently recovering.
Score boosters: The Big Three credit reporting companies — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — have agreed to start removing tax liens and civil judgments from consumers' credit reports. The move, which is expected to start around July 1, "could help boost credit scores for millions of consumers, but could pose risks for lenders," the paper reported. The action follows "regulatory pressure," which the paper says "has intensified in recent years around credit reports and the outsize role they typically play in lending decisions."
Penalty: The Federal Reserve wants to fine two former JPMorgan Chase bankers and permanently ban them from working in the industry for allegedly offering internships and other jobs at the bank in Asia to children of high-ranking officials in exchange for business. The bankers in question, Fang Fang, the former head of JPMorgan's China investment bank, and Timothy Fletcher, who ran the JPMorgan hiring program and led the firm's junior resources management group in Asia, face fines of $1 million and $500,000, respectively. The bank has already paid $264 million in fines over the alleged bribery.
Financial Times
Wells redux?: TD Bank Group is on the defensive in its native land after the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation aired two reports accusing the bank "of a catalogue of Wells Fargo-like sales abuses," according to the paper. The TV network said TD employees in Canada "increased customers' lines of credit, overdraft protection amounts and credit card borrowing limits — all without authorization — in order to reach sales targets," the paper said. "A follow-up report claimed 'hundreds' of current and former employees had got in touch with the broadcaster, describing a 'pressure cooker' sales environment that encouraged them to break rules to keep their jobs." The bank's stock price fell more than 5% on Friday, its biggest one-day loss in more than eight years.
New York Times
Housing decision: The Trump administration may soon be forced to disclose what it proposes to do about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to financial columnist Gretchen Morgenson. The subject "is nowhere near the top" of the White House's to-do list and has said little about it, she acknowledges. "But we will know a lot more in the coming weeks as circumstances compel Trump officials to show their hand. In essence, their action or inaction on two important matters will demonstrate whether they intend to follow the Obama administration's approach to the companies — which was to keep them in federal conservatorship and drain them of capital — or take a different path, perhaps toward privatization."
The U.S. arm of Spanish banking giant Santander has hired Swati Bhatia to oversee retail banking and its digital transformation efforts. Bhatia joins at "an inflection point" for the company, which aims to be "a digital bank with branches," CEO Tim Wennes said.
Mariya Rosberg is named Americas head of banking and financial services at Marsh McLennan's Oliver Wyman unit; startup ZayZoon raised $15 million in a new funding round; and more in the weekly banking news roundup.
Last year, the Raleigh, N.C.-based Integrated called off a deal to sell itself to MVB Financial after bank stocks took a hit in the aftermath of the regional bank failures. Capital hopes to expand its government-guaranteed lending with the transaction.
Once a prominent figure spurring financial institutions to engage in cryptocurrency, Bankman-Fried's downslide began with the collapse of the digital asset exchange FTX in late 2022 and hit rock bottom with his sentencing to 25 years in prison.