Latest banking news

August 5, 2022 2:45 PM

Leading off our extra coverage is the story of a settlement reached in just a few days of Walt Disney Co.'s antitrust suit against Visa and Mastercard. People news includes hires at Synovus and Royal Bank of Canada, and we look at a large credit union merger and a partnership between Santander and Rocket Mortgage.

Scroll through to see what you might have missed this week in banking, payments, credit unions and more.

Disney quickly settles swipe-fee suit with Visa and Mastercard

Matt Stroshane/Bloomberg News

The Walt Disney Co. on Aug. 3 settled an antitrust suit against Visa and Mastercard five days after filing the action in New York Federal Court. Disney's July 29 complaint alleged that the two largest payment card networks charged the Burbank, California-based entertainment company excessive credit and debit card interchange fees over the last 18 years. Disney moved to dismiss the suit on Aug. 3, according to a report in The Hollywood Reporter. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The lawsuit came three years after Disney joined dozens of major retailers in opting out of a $6 billion settlement the card networks reached after years of litigation. — Kate Fitzgerald

State Farm adds PayPal to payments roster

Jack Smith/Bloomberg

State Farm is augmenting its Digital Pay feature, adding instant claim payouts to PayPal accounts. Digital Pay allows claims to be reviewed, approved and paid digitally. Consumers choose a debit card, or digital wallets, with funds available in a few seconds. State Farm uses Fiserv's Carat payment technology to support its claims transactions. Insurance payments are considered an emerging use case for faster processing. — John Adams

Fifth Third audit chief joins Synovus as chief risk officer

Photo taken of front of Synovus regional office in Atlanta area.

Synovus Financial in Columbus, Georgia, hired Shellie Creson, formerly vice president and chief audit executive for Fifth Third Bank, as chief risk officer. Creson succeeds Mark Holladay, who retired in March. She reports to Kevin Blair, the company's president and CEO, and is a member of the executive leadership team. "Shellie has an outstanding record of influencing corporate risk structures, including driving organizational and board engagement in risk mitigation and ongoing risk management," Blair said in a press release. Creson joined the Cincinnati-based Fifth Third in 2017. She has also held leadership positions at Regions Bank and First Horizon Bank. — Lizzy Lawrence

Alaska and Washington credit unions merge

Alaska USA Federal Credit Union in Anchorage and Global Credit Union have completed their merger to become one of the largest credit unions in the country, with assets of $12 billion. The combined organization will take the name of the $11.4 billion-asset Alaska USA, whose president and CEO, Geoff Lundfelt, will retain those titles. His counterpart at Global, Jack Fallis, will be regional president of the Pacific Northwest and international markets at Alaska. "By becoming one entity, we are able to offer our employees opportunities they would not otherwise have," Fallis said in a news release. — Victoria Zhuang

CommonWealth Central Credit Union in California names CFO

David Loftus.

CommonWealth Central Credit Union in San Jose, California, hired David Loftus as chief financial officer. Loftus, who had been vice president at C. Myers, a financial services company in Phoenix, joined the $687 million-asset CommonWealth this month. "I am thrilled to have someone of David's caliber joining our team, and I am confident he will be a key contributor to our success as we plan for the future," Viktoria Earle, the credit union's president and chief executive, said in a press release Wednesday. —Frank Gargano

RBC hires two from Citigroup

Signage is displayed outside of a Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) branch.

Cole Burston/Bloomberg

Royal Bank of Canada's investment banking arm hired a pair of Citigroup bankers, tapping Shawn Borisoff for private equity dealmaking and Ryan Bott for retail, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Borisoff is set to join RBC Capital Markets later this year, reporting to the firm's co-heads of financial sponsors, Harold Varah and Mark Goldstein, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing the hirings. Bott will be part of RBC's consumer and retail investment banking group, the person added. Earlier this year, that group hired a trio of Citigroup bankers, including global head Doug Trauber. Representatives for Toronto-based RBC and New York-based Citigroup declined to comment. Borisoff, most recently Citigroup's head of West Coast global asset managers, last year relocated to San Francisco from London. He joined the bank in 2017 after previously working at UBS Group. Bott, based in New York, joined Citigroup in 2015, and was named managing director in December 2020. He previously worked at Credit Suisse Group, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority records show. — Gillian Tan, Bloomberg News

Valley National parks $25 million in The Garage

Valley National Bancorp headquarters in Wayne, N.J.

Valley National Bank in Wayne, N.J., announced a $25 million investment in The Garage, an early-stage fintech venture capital fund backed by Bank Leumi. "One of our key strategic goals is to ensure long-term relevance in a constantly changing banking environment," Valley CEO Ira Robbins said in a press release. "The Garage was the best partner to help us achieve this goal." The $54 billion-asset Valley National acquired Bank Leumi USA in April. — Paige Hagy

East West Bancorp CEO Ng to chair Asia-Pacific advisory council

Dominic Ng, chairman and CEO of East West Bancorp.

Dominic Ng, the chief executive of East West Bancorp in Pasadena, California, was named incoming chairman of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation's Business Advisory Council for 2023, the U.S. Department of State said. Ng has led East West Bancorp for three decades and has been a member of the advisory council since April. — Allissa Kline

Aspiration names its first chief of innovation

Tim Newell.

Aspiration Partners, a Los Angeles company that helps consumers and businesses spend, save or operate more sustainably, has named Tim Newell as its first chief innovation officer. "Climate change is more central in our lives than ever before and with Tim's unique experience across these sectors, he is well poised to help us in delivering meaningful climate action solutions, from consumers to enterprises," Andrei Cherny, CEO and co-founder of Aspiration, said in a press release on Thursday. Newell formerly led financial products teams at Tesla and SolarCity (the latter of which was acquired by Tesla) and held technology-focused roles in the U.S. government, including deputy director for policy in the White House Office of Science and Technology during the Clinton Administration. — Miriam Cross

Santander forges home loan partnership with Rocket Mortgage

Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg

Six months after exiting the U.S. residential mortgage market, Santander Bank will again offer its customers home loans — sort of. Santander, the $95.9 billion-asset American subsidiary of the Spanish banking giant Banco Santander, announced a partnership with Detroit-based Rocket Mortgage Friday. Under the arrangement, Rocket will serve as exclusive preferred mortgage provider for Santander customers, offering discounted service and a dedicated support team. While Rocket has established similar preferred relationships with Charles Schwab Bank and Morgan Stanley, Santander is its first consumer bank partner. Rocket Mortgage closed mortgage loans totaling $88.5 billion in the six months that ended June 30, down 52% from the same period in 2021, as rising rates curtailed residential lending activity. Rocket Companies, Rocket Mortgage's corporate parent, announced second-quarter net income totaling $60 million Thursday, down from $1 billion for the second quarter of 2021. Santander said it exited mortgages to focus more on auto and personal lending, as well as commercial lending to small and mid-sized businesses. — John Reosti