View from CBA April 11, 2014

April 11, 2014

CFPB Attempts to Level the Playing Field

We were glad to have CFPB Deputy Director Steven Antonakes at CBA LIVE last week where he made some news. In his remarks at the general session on April 2, 2014 he stated: “We are now increasingly able to level the playing field between banks and their nonbank competitors for the first time. These changes are most notable for the nonbank institutions, but for many banks as well.”
 
The CFPB is rightly taking steps to level the playing field between banks and non-banks and I applaud them for this action. The Bureau’s latest efforts will effect institutions throughout the financial services industry in areas such as debt collection, student loans and auto lending, and is a direct result of increased monitoring of consumer complaints originating from non-bank providers.
 

 

Meeting Our Bankers

CBA’s Government Relations team met with Rich Santoro, Vice President - Head of U.S. Government Relations of Discover Financial, at CBA’s world headquarters. This was an opportunity to touch base on developments on Capitol Hill and a number of issues including retailer data breaches, private student lending and the DOE’s negotiated rulemaking process on campus products.
 
CBA's General Counsel Steve Zeisel and Regulatory Counsel Dong Hong traveled to Los Angeles, CA to participate in the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section Spring Meeting focusing on regulatory and compliance issues. Dong spoke at the conference on the CFPB’s advance notice of proposed rulemaking on debt collection and comments made by consumer groups as well as members of the credit and collection industry.
 
While in California, Steve, Dong and Membership Director Liz Terry visited with Toyota Financial Savings Bank where they discussed the regulatory environment as well as strategic planning on Community Reinvestment Act with Holly Walters, Chief Risk Officer and Chief Technology Officer.
 
Team CBA also held a meeting with Green Dot, where they sat down with Lew GoodwinJohn Ricci, and Amanda Airo to discuss the notice of proposed rulemaking on prepaid cards, arbitration, small dollar loans and the CFPB complaint portal.
 

CBA LIVE – We Want Your Feedback!

CBA LIVE 2014 was a resounding success this year thanks to the ideas from and lessons learned over the past five years. If you attended this year’s CBA LIVE, please take a moment to fill out a brief surveyand let us know how we did. Our goal is to make each year better than the last and believe it or not but we are already planning for CBA LIVE 2015 in Orlando!
 

GSRBM Looking Strong for 2014

We are looking at another exciting year for GSRBM. Additions to the faculty for 2014 include: Chris Low, Chief Economist for FTN Financial, who will lead the Economic Issues class for seniors on the state of the economy and Former Governor of the Federal Reserve Betsy Duke, who will lead a class on Interest Rates and the Federal Reserve.
 
60 GSRBM alumni attended CBA LIVE, including a strong crowd at the Alumni Breakfast which featured remarks by the Bank Administration Institute’s (BAI) president and CEO Debbie Bianucci, and a panel discussion by CBA’s Education Chair Mark Rendulic, CBA Board Member Jeff Hooper, CBA’s Board of Directors Chair Andy Harmening, and myself.
 

 

GSRBM Breakfast at CBA LIVE 2014
March 31, 2014
Gaylord National Harbor

 

News and Notes

Will Howle, CBA Board Member and the current head of Citi’s U.S. Commercial Bank, has been promoted to become the Head of the U.S. Retail Bank. This is a newly created position at the bank.
 
Within Citi's U.S. Consumer unit, Will's team will include Kathryn Chase as Regional President, East Branch Network; Jerome Byers as Regional President, West Branch Network; Rob Beck, Retail COO/Retail Products; Venu Krishnamurthy, Citigold Wealth Management; and Dena Roten, Branch Operations.
 
Wells Fargo has named John Shrewsberry as chief financial officer. He will succeed Timothy Sloan, who will now lead the wholesale banking unit.
 
Midwest operations President Sally Roth, who oversees Regions Financial’s operations in Missouri, Iowa and Western Kentucky, will retire on June 30, 2014.
 
Regions will create two new Midwest regions following Roth’s retirement. Mike Hart will serve as area president of Illinois, Missouri, Iowa and Western Kentucky. Hart is currently the area president for Indiana, Illinois and part of Kentucky.
 
Leslie Carter-Prall will be area president of Regions’ newly created Indiana region, which also includes the bank’s commercial offices in Chicago and Cincinnati as well as several counties in Illinois. Carter-Prall is presently Regions' area wealth executive for Indiana, Illinois and part of Kentucky.
 
Santander has appointed Jerry Plush as chief financial officer of its U.S. holding company Santander Holdings USA and Maria Tedesco, a former member of CBA’s Small Business Committee, as managing director of retail banking for Santander Bank.
 
E.J. Burke and Dennis Devine have been named as co-presidents of KeyCorp. Burke will oversee commercial and private banking and Devine will oversee consumer and small business.