Spence’s promotion to president could signal that the Cincinnati banking company is grooming him as a potential successor to Chairman and CEO Greg Carmichael.
Deposits have piled up, curtailing overdrafts and other fees. The trend could force lenders to find other ways to make money — or start cutting to the bone.
Many of the Buffalo, N.Y., bank’s commercial loans have exited forbearance granted in the early days of the pandemic — except hospitality and retail, which were given longer dispensation.
The Cincinnati company, one of just a handful of lenders to reduce its cushion against bad credits in the third quarter, was grilled by analysts who suggested it was being too optimistic about the long-term effects of the pandemic recession.
The Dallas bank has begun encouraging larger borrowers to seek forgiveness of Paycheck Protection Program loans first as it holds out for the government to streamline the process for loans below $150,000.
Gary Cohn, former head of the Trump administration’s National Economic Council and onetime top executive at Goldman Sachs, says technological changes will continue to make it harder for smaller financial institutions to compete and force many to be sold.
Strong mortgage and capital markets activity helped offset credit costs and one-time items in the third quarter at Citizens Financial Group. In a period of low rates, CEO Bruce Van Saun says he’d like to buy more fee-generating businesses.
The family-owned bank from the South and the New York commercial lender each would fill a clear need for the other. First Citizens would gain business lending expertise and an online deposit-gathering platform, and CIT would get the cheap deposits it coveted.
The Minneapolis company says the majority of branches earmarked for closing have already been shuttered for months due to the pandemic. Some of the savings will be plowed back into digital expansion.
Even more so than activist investors, customers and a new generation of employees are driving banks to back environmental, social and governance reforms, executives said during a Women in Banking roundtable hosted by American Banker.
