Latest banking news

October 14, 2022 2:31 PM

We lead our bonus coverage with two items on TD Bank. Those stories have an M&A connection, and we report on a new deal involving two banks named Western.

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

TD Bank welcomes back exec as COO ...

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Steve Boyle is rejoining TD Bank after a stint as interim CEO and chief financial officer of the online securities brokerage TD Ameritrade. He is taking the newly created position of chief operating officer and will help with the integration of Toronto-Dominion-Bank's $13.4 billion acquisition of First Horizon Bank, according to a statement from the Cherry Hill, New Jersey-based subsidiary. Boyle was TD Bank's chief financial officer from 1997 to 2015 before joining TD Ameritrade and leading the firm through its $26 billion sale to Charles Schwab in 2020. — Jordan Stutts

... and opens a call center in Florida

Close-up image of two workers, wearing headsets, at a call center.

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TD Bank has opened a call center in Jacksonville, Florida, continuing its expansion efforts in the state. The U.S. banking subsidiary of Toronto-Dominion Bank in Canada recently opened a 30,000-square-foot "contact center hub" in the Deerwood North office park and plans to fill the space with more than 200 employees, according to a press release. So far, about 90 of the 200 workers have been hired, a TD Bank spokesperson said. TD operates 157 branches across Florida, including seven that have opened in the past year, and plans to open three more by the end of the year, the release said. The investment in Florida comes as the company continues to await regulatory approval of its $13.4 billion deal to acquire First Horizon in Memphis, Tennessee. The acquisition would create one of the six largest banks in the United States by assets. — Allissa Kline

Western Commerce buying fellow New Mexico bank

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Western Commerce Bancshares, the holding company for the $617 million-asset Western Commerce Bank in Carlsbad, New Mexico, agreed to purchase Western Bank of Clovis in Clovis, New Mexico, and its parent organization, Western Bancshares of Clovis Inc. "Due to the close relationship of Western Bank of Clovis and Western Commerce Bank, both banks share the same common goals: providing fair, friendly and quality banking services to our customers," Jason Wyatt, chairman, president and chief executive of the $64 million-asset Western Bank, said in a press release Wednesday. The deal is expected to close in early 2023. Financial terms were not disclosed. — Frank Gargano

Shopify courts merchants with tax calculator

An Apple Inc. iPad tablet with the Shopify Inc. app is displayed at the entrance to the company's headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2015. Shopify, the Canadian e-commerce software maker that sold shares in an initial public offering in May, raised its revenue forecast after beating analysts estimates in its second quarter as a listed company. Photographer: Kevin Van Paassen/Bloomberg

Kevin Van Paassen/Bloomberg

The e-commerce firm Shopify has launched Shopify Tax, a product that allows sellers to determine the proper sales tax at the point of sale, along with a view of current and upcoming tax calculations. Shopify is attempting to address the range of sales tax rules, covering more than 11,000 jurisdictions in the U.S., which it contends are a pain point for small businesses. The e-commerce company is offering digital alerts when local sales tax rules change, and notifications to merchants regarding which states they are required to pay taxes in, and other compliance complexities such as tax thresholds. Shopify has recently focused on enhancing its product mix at the point of sale, recently introducing Shopify Go, a mobile device that accepts payments and links to other merchant services. — John Adams

Irish consumers are boosting cash withdrawals as inflation bites

Aidan Crawley/Bloomberg

The pandemic may have boosted digital payments, but in Ireland people are taking out more cash as prices soar. The value of ATMs withdrawals jumped by 7% between September 2021 and June this year, according to the country's central bank — matching the increase in consumer prices. "While nominal withdrawal values have been rising, their real value has been relatively steady since autumn 2021, suggesting that users' cash needs are responding to inflationary developments," authors David Cronin and Niall McInerney wrote in an economic letter published Thursday. Irish inflation reached 9.1% in June and July, the highest level in almost four decades, before easing to 8.2% last month. The measure is expected to average 8% in 2022 and 6.3% in 2023, the central bank said last week. Cash remains a widely used form of payment in Ireland, despite a partial shift to more transactions by card and other means during the COVID-19 crisis, the bank said. — Morwenna Coniam, Bloomberg News

Wells Fargo hires new head of power, utilities, renewables M&A

Wes Frazer/Bloomberg

Wells Fargo hired Sesh Raghavan as a managing director and its new head of power, utilities and renewables mergers and acquisitions activity. Raghavan, who will be based in New York, will report to David DeNunzio, global head of mergers and acquisitions. He will be responsible for client relationships, business origination and the execution of M&A and advisory assignments in his assigned sectors. He joins the bank from Evercore, where he was a managing director. "We are pleased to welcome Sesh to Wells Fargo," DeNunzio said in a statement confirming the move. "Sesh brings substantial experience advising power, utilities and renewable companies in their M&A transactions. His hiring reflects our commitment to this sector and to investing in top talent as we grow our Banking platform." A representative for Evercore declined to comment. — Kiel Porter, Bloomberg News

Tether says it's removed commercial paper from its stablecoin

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The stablecoin issuer Tether, which was fined $41 million in 2021 over false claims that its coin was fully backed by U.S. dollars and euros, on Thursday announced it has cut all commercial paper from the reserves that back the stablecoin. The commercial paper has been replaced with U.S. Treasury bills, according to the announcement. Stablecoins are designed to avoid the volatility of other types of cryptocurrency by backing their value with traditional currency or T-bills. Some stablecoins are blacked by commercial paper, or unsecured promissory notes. The use of commercial paper to back stablecoins has been a source of controversy because of the potential for a shortfall if all of the stablecoin's holders tried to cash out in a short amount of time. — John Adams

Texas Capital's new headquarters lease includes building naming rights

Texas Capital Bank is planning to expand its footprint in the Dallas office building that has served as its corporate headquarters since 2008. As part of a new 15-year lease that includes naming rights, Texas Capital will occupy more than 200,000 square feet across seven floors in the 21-story building on McKinney Avenue that will be renamed Texas Capital Center. Construction is scheduled to begin next year. The expansion is part of the bank's larger strategic overhaul to become the "flagship financial institution in Texas," Chief Administrative Officer John Cummings said in a press release. — Allissa Kline

Citi forms green energy transition advisory teams in Australia

Citigroup Confronts Vaccine Holdouts In No Jab, No Job Mandate

Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg

Citigroup is creating dedicated coverage teams to advise Australian companies on the energy transition, as well as other environmental, social and governance issues. "There's a lot of opportunity even in Australia around ESG, there's a lot of appetite in Australia and investment going into that," Citigroup Australia & New Zealand CEO Marc Luet told Bloomberg TV on the sidelines of Citi's investment conference in Sydney Wednesday. — Haidi Lun and Harry Brumpton, Bloomberg News

First Citizens extends middle-market banking business to Southwest

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One month after launching a middle-market banking division in the Southeast, First Citizens Bank in Raleigh, North Carolina, is expanding that business to include Southern California and the Southwest. The banking arm of First Citizens BancShares — which in January merged with CIT Group in New York — said it now offers senior secured loans, cash-flow loans, capital markets services, foreign exchange capabilities, asset-based lending and treasury and payment services in both regions to companies with annual sales of $75 million to $750 million. The company employs 29 people in middle-market banking, including nine based in the Southwest, and plans to widen its middle-market service area to include all of California and the Midwest "in the near future," a First Citizens spokesperson said. Future rollouts into "other key markets across the U.S." will be announced when the company hires the necessary bankers, the spokesperson added. — Allissa Kline