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Ally Financial in Detroit announced its second big management change in less than two months.
March 19 - Utah
Zions Bancorp. in Salt Lake City has hired a SunTrust Banks executive to replace Doyle Arnold, who is retiring in May as chief financial officer.
March 20 -
U.S. Bancorp has hired a former Santander Bank executive to oversee the diversified industries segment of its large corporate banking division in New England.
March 19
BOK Financial in Tulsa, Okla., has reorganized several management posts following the resignation of its chief operating officer.
The $29 billion-asset company said in a press release Friday that Dan Ellinor had resigned. Ellinor, who had been with BOK Financial for 12 years, had managed all aspects of the company's commercial banking activities, including its specialty areas in energy loans, commercial real estate, health care and syndications. He also oversaw TransFund, the company's electronic funds transfer network and the nation's eighth-largest ATM network.
Ellinor "has had a meaningful impact on BOK Financial's strategic direction and financial results in his time leading the commercial bank, as well as serving as COO the past year and a half," Steve Bradshaw, the company's president and chief executive, said in the release.
Bradshaw and Ellinor were considered candidates to succeed Stanley Lybarger as chief executive. BOK Financial announced in July 2013 that Bradshaw would succeed Lybarger, who retired later that year. The company named Ellinor as chief operating officer, resurrecting a position that had not existed in years.
"As the company transitioned to a new CEO, I think people were watching to see if it would result in one of the top guys potentially leaving," said Brett Rabatin, an analyst at Sterne Agee.
Energy-related credits make up more than a fifth of BOK Financial's loan book, prompting questions about the company's exposure to depressed oil prices. Still, Rabatin said he doubted Ellinor's departure was tied to that portfolio or the company's first-quarter results.
"It is a loss to the company, given his leadership in lending," Rabatin said. "I don't think it has anything to do with energy loans in their portfolio, its financial results or credit quality."
A company spokesman told American Banker that the resignation was unrelated to falling oil prices.
BOK Financial said it will not fill the now-vacant COO post. Instead, the company tapped Chief Credit Officer Stacy Kymes to become executive vice president of corporate banking, creating a new post that will take on many of responsibilities formerly held by Ellinor.
The company also announced that Norm Bagwell, its executive vice president of regional banks, will become responsible for the business banking and Treasury services groups that were also under Ellinor's watch.
BOK Financial's moves reflect its deep management bench, the spokesman said. The company, which hopes to soon fill the chief credit officer post, is eying internal candidates for the role.
