Blue Ridge Bankshares has named a president of its fintech division.
Processing Content
On Tuesday the Charlottesville, Virginia, bank announced that Kirsten Muetzel would oversee its fintech practice, which involves managing the bank's partners, ensuring regulatory compliance and furthering its banking-as-a-service strategy.
Kirsten Muetzel, the new president of Blue Ridge Bank's fintech division, spent a decade in the Federal Reserve system, including supervising banks in banking-as-a-service relationships.
Previously, Muetzel spent a decade in the Federal Reserve system, including supervising banks in BaaS partnerships, and has served as a chief financial officer and chief risk officer for fintech companies.
"She brings the perfect combination of banking supervision experience coupled with fintech industry knowledge and business acumen," said Brian Plum, chief executive officer of the $2.9 billion-asset Blue Ridge Bank, in a press release. "Kirsten will be instrumental as we continue building the necessary infrastructure to support current partnerships while preparing the foundation upon which to build future success."
The bank has run into trouble with regulators before. It had to delay its merger with FVCBankcorp in 2021 after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency raised concerns and called off the deal in early 2022. In September, a securities filing revealed that the OCC required Blue Ridge Bank to make several changes. It must obtain a non-objection from the OCC before it signs any contracts with new fintech partners or adds new products with its existing partners, refine the ways it complies with the Bank Secrecy Act, and explain how it will improve its monitoring of suspicious activity.
One possible trigger behind this enforcement action: the dissolution of Aeldra Financial, a company that partnered with Blue Ridge to offer U.S. bank accounts to non-U.S. citizens in India. The company ceased operations in August, and various members of Blue Ridge's board of directors signed the agreement with the OCC one week later.
Julia Carreon is suing the bank, alleging she suffered race and sex discrimination, including sexual harassment by Andy Sieg, the bank's head of wealth management. On Tuesday, Citi hit back by filing a petition to compel arbitration and accusing Carreon of making false claims.
The bill, known as the STOP Act, was introduced by State Sen. Samra Brouk and Assemblymember Steven Raga, and proposes that any wage or cash advance be considered a loan and subject to the state's 16% civil usury law.
Merchants have mostly been silent on President Trump's call for a cap on credit-card interest rates. But they'd take a "huge hit" under such a plan, Synchrony CEO Brian Doubles said Tuesday.
A Delaware judge denied HoldCo Asset Management's emergency motion for a temporary restraining order to stop the deal from closing. Fifth Third plans to complete its purchase on Feb. 1.
