Succession planning

Wells Fargo is ready to recruit more than 200 brokers from Credit Suisse's U.S. private banking unit set to close early next year, with the Swiss bank's blessing.

Webster Financial in Waterbury, Conn., has promoted its head of commercial banking to president of Webster Bank and its holding company.

Opus Bank in Irvine, Calif., has promoted Jennifer Simmons to chief operating officer and appointed her to the executive committee.

American Bank in Corpus Christi, Texas, will promote two executives next year, after longtime chairman and chief executive Al Jones retires.

One look at the industry's C-suite makes it obvious that banks need to mirror demographic shifts far better and faster.

Northrim BanCorp in Anchorage, Alaska, will give its chief executive the additional title of chairman, as its current chairman to plans to retire at year end.

First he was an heir apparent to Jamie Dimon at the biggest bank in the U.S. Then he came close to getting the top job at Barclays, a company older than the U.S. itself. Three years later, Jes Staley is the closest he's ever been to getting a big bank's chief executive officer seat.

SunTrust Banks has promoted its Atlanta market leader to a new position in wholesale banking and has named its first woman executive to lead the Atlanta market.

CIT also plans to sell peripheral businesses to simplify its structure, less than three months after the close of its $3.4 billion deal for OneWest Bank.

From interest rate risk to C-suite and boardroom diversity to succession planning, community bankers need to be acutely tuned in to a combination of global and domestic factors that are changing their world at an unprecedented pace.