Strategic planning

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.

Six weeks after unveiling a broad restructuring plan, the North Carolina bank said it has already taken several steps to lower expenses, and that various cost-reduction initiatives are on parallel paths.

The two megabanks continue to shrink their branch networks, with BofA planning to close 20 locations and Wells recently shuttering 15. Both banks are also opening new branches in certain markets.

Executives of the $405 billion-asset bank say that they have completed 40% of a cost-cutting strategy begun earlier this year.

Jane Fraser defended Citigroup's recently announced organizational overhaul and specific performance targets, saying the plan is different from prior restructurings because it's designed to fundamentally change how the company operates.

The Pittsburgh-based regional bank expects to save $325 million next year as it reduces its staff by 4%. Executives said the cuts are necessary because revenue has fallen amid a surge in interest rates and a decline in loan volumes.

The consulting giant's annual global banking review highlights a stark trend: Over a seven-year period, more than 70% of the net increase in financial assets ended up not on U.S. banks' balance sheets, but instead at insurance and pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, in private capital markets and elsewhere.

Thomas Nides, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and longtime Morgan Stanley executive, will take over the megabank's public affairs division as its work to fix regulatory concerns continues. He succeeds Bill Daley, the former chief of staff to President Barack Obama, who recently announced his retirement from Wells.

Revenue challenges are driving the Utah bank's plan to reduce expenses, according to CEO Harris Simmons. "I talk to our peers, and everybody's looking for ways to cut costs," he said.

Fraser has a plan to reduce the number of management layers at Citi, shrink its workforce, speed up decision-making and give herself more control of the bank's five core businesses. "It's going to make some of our people very uncomfortable," she said.

At least four of CEO Jane Fraser's senior deputies got new roles in the shakeup, which will result in a number of job cuts.