It’s not necessarily new, but a confluence of trends — advances in technology, changing consumer preferences and banks’ need to diversify their balance sheets — has made it more popular than ever.
Corporate governance experts normally recommend separating the roles, but Fifth Third's lead director says giving CEO Greg Carmichael both titles was a vote of confidence in his ability to guide the Cincinnati company.
Most general counsels are men, but in 2017 women filled more than half of the top legal positions that opened up at large financial firms. The trend is likely to continue as the population of women lawyers swells and banks continue to diversify their senior ranks.
Net interest income has surged thanks to rising rates, but noninterest income has lagged as trading revenue has weakened, refi demand has softened and fees from deposit service charges have barely budged. Is this the new normal?
The bank says it received an “outstanding” rating on its most recent Community Reinvestment Act examination. Its previous rating, a “needs to improve,” not only was bad publicity but restricted its ability to buy banks.
Banks have been in full cost-cutting mode in recent years, but with profits expected to increase substantially as a result of tax reform, all analysts and investors want to know is how they plan to spend their tax savings.
Commercial customers, including small businesses, seem ready to pay up to shift to faster, more sophisticated electronic invoicing and payments, and enterprising banks that provide them the technology to do so could find it lucrative.
