Strategic planning

Each spring during the rush of annual meetings, a handful of financial institutions take heat from shareholders who demand new strategies, management shakeups and, at times, even a sale of the company.

Larger banks are responsible for a special assessment to cover the costs of the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. The price tag has ballooned by $4.1 billion, and trade groups are criticizing the FDIC's process, arguing that it lacks transparency.

The turmoil at New York Community Bancorp resumed Thursday with the departure of CEO Thomas Cangemi. The embattled regional bank, which also recorded a $2.4 billion goodwill impairment charge and disclosed other new problems, saw its share price plunge.

Strategic alliances are a viable avenue leading to risk reduction and higher profits — provided that bankers can learn to embrace them.

The Los Angeles-based bank said that it's eliminating roles across its footprint. The job cuts follow a year in which expenses soared and losses piled up.

The Birmingham, Alabama bank cut down its workforce across divisions as higher interest rates put pressure on its business.

The Los Angeles company has sold $6 billion of loans and securities since buying PacWest in November. CEO Jared Wolff said it might get smaller still as it strives to boost profitability.

The Tennessee-based bank was forced to keep operating on its own after a proposed acquisition was called off. Months later, First Horizon has picked up new customers and improved its profitability, but investors remain cautious amid plans for catch-up spending on technology.

Despite a surge in quarterly expenses in the fourth quarter and a projected uptick in the first quarter, the North Carolina company is standing by its expense guidance for 2024.

After the Rhode Island-based company eliminated 650 positions, severance-related costs contributed to a 71% decline in quarterly net income.

The custody bank is managing expectations about its 2024 performance while assuring investors that profits will improve significantly in the medium term. AI is one path it's pursuing.

Royal Bank of Canada hopes to save money by moving positions from high-cost California to Vancouver. The Toronto-based company is looking to cut costs as it seeks to bolster the earnings of its Los Angeles-based City National Bank subsidiary.

Banks large and small are selling some or all of their insurance subsidiaries, enticed by the high prices they're being offered. Here's a rundown of the deals that were struck in 2023.

Across the industry, the pace of branch shutdowns slowed this year. Still, large financial institutions continued to trim their physical footprints, with two super-regional banks taking the most aggressive actions.

The megabank, which is in the midst of a massive restructuring, will probably book "a couple of hundred million dollars" of restructuring charges in the fourth quarter, according to its chief financial officer.

Frustrated by its inability to overcome loan-servicing mistakes that triggered three separate regulatory consent orders, Discover Financial Services elected to sell its student loan business. "When we looked at it, we have perennial issues in our ability to service that portfolio," a top executive said.

The nation's largest bank has already completed many of the branch closings that can boost its earnings, leaving it with "less and less accretive opportunities to consolidate," according to a top executive.

The megabank did not say how many positions it plans to cut as part of a reorganization that represents Jane Fraser's biggest move so far as CEO.

The regional bank announced a near-doubling of the size of its most-senior leadership team, plus expanded roles for two former SunTrust executives and the hiring of a wholesale banking chief from Wells Fargo. Truist is under pressure to improve both its efficiency and its financial performance.

"We'll be taking steps to offset expense pressures," CEO Curtis Farmer told analysts after the company reported an 11% year-over-year jump in costs and falling profits.