Receiving Wide Coverage ...
OCC seeks data: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has sent formal letters to large and regional banks it regulates seeking information about their sales practices and incentive-compensation plans following the Wells Fargo scandal. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Santander USA were among the banks getting letters. Comptroller Thomas Curry told the Senate Banking Committee last month the regulator will "review the sales practices of all the large and midsize banks the OCC supervises and assess the sufficiency of controls with respect to these practices."
Timothy P. Sloan, Wells Fargo's new CEO, apologized to the bank's 278,000 workers for the phony accounts scandal. Restoring trust in the bank "may seem like a long ways off today, but I promise you we will," he said. Sloan also said former employees who were let go for failing to meet sales quotas may be able to get their jobs back. Wells has created a "special HR team" to help some of those "who left retail banking for performance reasons" apply for available positions, the Financial Times reported.
"I want to apologize to all of you. I want to say we're sorry for the pain you have experienced as team members as a result of our company's failures," Sloan said in his first address to the bank's employees. American Banker looks at how this reputational crisis is unique.
Lending Club takes the wheel: Lending Club, the marketplace lender that has run into problems of late, announced Tuesday that is it getting into the auto loan refinance business. Scott Sanborn, the company's president and CEO, said Lending Club would initially target consumers with high credit scores who bought a used car from a dealership. "There's a gap between the rates consumers pay and the rates they might otherwise qualify for, unnecessarily driving up debt burdens," he said. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, American Banker
Wall Street Journal
Disclosure: Three of the largest online providers of small-business loans rolled out their version of a "Schumer Box." On Deck Capital, Kabbage and CAN Capital agreed on the standards that will show the loan's APR, total dollars to be repaid and other information. The box is the first effort of the Innovative Lending Platform Association, a trade group the three firms created last May.
Bankruptcy ahead?: Shares of troubled First NBC Bank plunged Tuesday after a major investor said a pre-packaged bankruptcy filing — which would wipe out common shareholders — would be the best solution to the New Orleans-based bank's financial problems. The investor, HoldCo Asset Management, said it would provide $30 million of new equity for the bank under its plan. The bank's stock price is down 85% so far this year. Last Thursday the bank disclosed that regulators deemed it to be in "troubled condition," which restricted its ability to sell debt and pay interest and dividends.
