Popular Hires FBR Analyst to Head Investor Relations

Another FBR bank analyst is leaving the northern Virginia boutique to pursue a career in investor relations.

Brett Scheiner has left FBR to become the investor relations officer for Popular Inc. (BPOP) in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Before joining FBR, Scheiner was an analyst at Loomis, Sayles & Co. and an equity strategist at Lehman Brothers. He will report to Popular's chief financial officer.

Popular joins other banks that have hired an analyst to handle investor concerns. Zions Bancorp (ZION) hired James Abbott a few years ago for the same type of role. Earlier this year, Abbott was named the best investor relations professional for mid-cap banks by Institutional Investor magazine.

"You can get a sense of what analysts are seeing, so you can figure out what questions to answer before they even ask them," Abbott told American Banker in February.

There are also rare instances of people leaving investor relations to pursue jobs in equity research. Notably, Greg Ketron left his investor relations post at SunTrust (STI) in 2007 to become a banking analyst at Citigroup and then UBS; he left UBS this year.