Receiving Wide Coverage ...
CIT, Censures and Selfies: Bank chiefs don't often find themselves defending their business decisions to community members in a public hearing, but then again the $3.4 billion proposed merger between CIT Group and OneWest is a pretty big deal in more ways than one. CIT chief executive John Thain and OneWest CEO Joseph Otting told a panel of banking regulators in Los Angeles Thursday that their plan to create a $70 billion bank could benefit local communities. Meanwhile, consumer advocates and some community members aired their concerns about OneWest's loan-modification and foreclosure practices and the bank's commitment to investing in low-income neighborhoods. The Wall Street Journal's coverage focuses largely on Thain and Otting, even noting that Thain took a selfie with a supporter of the merger. The New York Times spends more time explaining criticisms of the deal, but has fewer details about what happened at the hearings.
Winters Ready for His Close Up: What do we know about freshly appointed Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters? The former co-head of JPMorgan Chase's investment bank is a popular pick among investors and analysts, according to the Wall Street Journal, thanks to his reputation as a cautious risk manager and solid team-builder and despite his lack of experience in Asian markets and retail banking. He was reportedly gunning to be next in line for Jamie Dimon's job at Chase, but never got close. He was ousted by Dimon in 2009 after the two had a falling out. If you prefer your rundowns of bank leadership shakeups peppered with Briticisms, the Financial Times has a colorful and odd explainer on how Winters came to replace Peter Sands at Standard Chartered. Meanwhile, another Journal article notes Winters' appointment proves JPMorgan Chase sure knows how to hatch future bank CEOs. The only problem is that if they take jobs elsewhere, it leaves fewer candidates to succeed Dimon.
Wall Street Journal
The U.S. wants China to change its proposed cybersecurity rules for bank technology because the regulations would put foreign tech companies at a disadvantage, the paper reports. One of U.S. businesses' biggest concerns is the rules would "require them to turn over source code, encryption keys and other sensitive technology" to Chinese authorities in order to compete in China's banking-technology market.
Financial Times
New York's Department of Financial Services is holding up settlement talks with Barclays over charges the bank manipulated foreign exchange markets, the paper reports. The problem is DFS is conducting a probe separate from that of the Department of Justice, Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Financial Conduct Authority, and Barclays reportedly wants to resolve the charges all in one go.
New York Times
American Express is counting on its trusty gold cards and its core base of wealthy consumers to help the company recover from a number of setbacks in recent months. Amex is raising the annual membership fee for the cards and adding some fancy new benefits including "a personalized travel service" and "double points for all restaurant transactions in the United States." There's no indication in the paper or press release of what the personalized travel service is, but everybody loves a good monogrammed smoking jacket. Just saying.
