Latest banking news

November 11, 2022 2:00 PM

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

Military trade group launches debit card for veterans

Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

The Association of Military Banks of America has partnered with digital payment company MOCA Financial to launch the Patriot Card, a debit card designed for veterans to manage and use their government benefits. The product allows users to create virtual cards that can be used immediately, transferred to another person and uploaded into digital wallets. Cardholders can also upload funds to Patriot cards from multiple sources, transfer funds between wallets and make person-to-person transfers without fees. The physical and virtual cards can be used in Visa's merchant network. The card also accesses the Armed Forces Financial Network, which enables scale for financial services designed for military, veteran and civilian consumers covering more 375 banks and credit unions that have services for military personnel and their families. — John Adams

Google expands external billing pilot

Google is extending is third-party billing beta test to the U.S., Brazil and South Africa, advancing a program that launched in March with Spotify as the initial announced participant. Google has been gradually adding markets, with India, Australia among a network of about three dozen countries. Google has also added dating app Bumble to its pilot testing. Android app developers can use choice billing to use non-Google payment systems. Google and Apple have both courted legal and regulatory challenges over payment policies that require third-party developers to use the technology companies' internal systems, often charging fees of up to 30%. — John Adams

Regions Financial gives CDFI customers no-charge access to ATMs

Regions Financial said it will allow customers of seven community development financial institutions in the Southeast to use its ATM network free of charge. The agreement comes five months after Regions and executives from CDFIs and minority depository institutions met to discuss ways to work together to help underserved communities. The seven organizations that now have access to Regions' ATM franchise are Carver State Bank in Savannah, Georgia; Citizens Savings Bank & Trust in Nashville; Commonwealth National Bank in Mobile, Alabama; Friend Bank in Dothan, Alabama; Hope Community Credit Union in Jackson, Mississippi; Optus Bank in Columbia, South Carolina; and Southern Bancorp in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. Regions, which is based in Birmingham, Alabama, said it operates more than 2,000 ATMs across the Southeast, Midwest and Texas. — Allissa Kline

Instacart adds Adyen for payment processing

Tiffany Hagler-Geard/Bloomberg

The payment technology firm Adyen has signed a deal with Instacart to provide payment processing, adding an additional processing option for the grocery shopping app. Adyen has introduced several new pieces of payment technology for both online and digital transactions over the past several months as it looks to gain share against PayPal, Square and Stripe. The growth of contract shoppers such as Instacart has contributed to the expansion of contactless payment technology since the start of the pandemic, providing a potential outlet for Adyen's new contactless mobile point of sale technology. — John Adams

Barclays joins rivals in culling investment banking staff

Jason Alden/Bloomberg

Barclays has begun eliminating jobs across its investment banking group, according to people familiar with the matter. The London-based bank will cut about 200 jobs and began the reductions this week, said one of the people, all of whom asked not to be identified discussing a private matter. The cuts represent less than 3% of the division's global headcount, the person said. A Barclays spokesman declined to comment. The bank joins Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and other rivals that have trimmed staff from their investment banks amid steep fee declines. Barclays said last month that investment banking fees fell 45% to £533 million ($614 million) in the third quarter — broadly in line with declines at other firms. Barclays remains committed to continuing to grow and invest in the business and is still hiring across the division, which has 365 open roles, one of the people said. — Gillian Tan, Bloomberg News

Citi's Japan investment banking co-head is said to leave

Thumbnail for Video: Inside Citigroup's CEO Network

Jin Lee/Bloomberg

Citigroup's investment banking co-head for Japan, Hirotaka Kato, has left the U.S. lender, according to people familiar with the matter.
Kato, who also served as financial institutions group head for Japan, exited recently, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. A representative for Citi declined to comment, while Kato couldn't be reached for comment.
The departure of a key banker for the country comes as investment banks globally are facing a slowdown in business with clients sitting on the sidelines on equity issuance and advisory services. Japan saw about $144 billion worth of pending and completed deals so far this year, compared with $273 billion for the same period in 2021, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Dozens of positions at New York-based Citi were cut this week, while reductions expected to eventually total about 200 have begun at London-based Barclays, Bloomberg News has reported. Morgan Stanley is considering eliminating about 50 investment-banking jobs in the Asia-Pacific region, people familiar with the matter said earlier this month. — Manuel Baigorri and Takashi Nakamichi, Bloomberg News

Webster Financial launches a finance lab …

Webster Financial in Stamford, Connecticut, has partnered with the Eagle Academy Foundation to open a financial education program for all six Eagle Academy schools that operate in the New York metropolitan area. Funded by a $100,000 grant from Webster's charitable foundation that will pay for software and curriculum materials, the finance lab is available to Eagle's population of all-male, sixth- through 12th-grade students who live in underserved communities. It's the second such finance lab partnership Webster has announced this year; in May it started a program with Yonkers Partners in Education to provide students in Yonkers schools with financial literacy skills. — Allissa Kline

… while its CEO Ciulla is named chair of an ABA council

John Ciulla.

John Ciulla, president and CEO of Webster Financial, has been appointed chair of the American Bankers Association's American Banker Council for midsize banks, Webster announced. Ciulla will lead a group of bank CEOs in providing insight and guidance to the ABA on regulatory and legislative issues that matter to midsize banks. Ciulla's new post follows his recent election to the ABA board of directors. — Allissa Kline

NCR hires information chief and promotes a an exec to head of marketing

NCR, the maker of banking products including ATMs, has a new chief information officer, Patricia Watson, and a new chief marketing officer, Jennifer Personette. "With our recent announcement to separate into two independent, industry-leading companies, Patty will be instrumental in guiding NCR through our business objectives, streamlining and modernizing our engineering and operations functions," Michael D. Hayford, the Atlanta company's chief executive, said in a press release. Watson has held similar posts at companies including TSYS and Bank of America. Personette has been with the company eight years and "has played an integral role in NCR's transformation, leading the evolution of our brand," Hayford said in a separate release. — Miriam Cross

First Citizens hires Wells Fargo veteran to lead deposits, payments

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First Citizens Bank in Raleigh, North Carolina, hired Wells Fargo veteran Bryan Pendleton lead its deposit and payment operations. In 17 years at Wells Fargo, Pendleton directed incident management and business continuity, served as head of payment operations and managed enterprise wire services. The Charlotte, North Carolina, native earned a business and law degree from Western Carolina University. — Orla McCaffrey