Latest banking news

September 9, 2022 4:06 PM

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

Will U.K. money change after Queen Elizabeth's death?

Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, the Bank of England said coins and paper notes bearing the queen's likeness are still legal tender, an announcement that was made amid rampant media speculation that King Charles III's image would replace the queen on currency. The queen, who became the U.K.'s monarch in 1952, has appeared on British currency since 1960, as well as some currency in Canada and Australia, coins in New Zealand and currency in other parts of the commonwealth. Canberra Weekly, an Australian publication, reported King Charles would appear on Australian currency, though the transition could take several years. And The Washington Post reported the new King's image would appear on British currency, stamps and other national symbols following a transition. The Bank of England said an announcement on the future of British currency would be made in the near future, and the Reserve Bank of Australia made a similar announcement. — John Adams

MoneyGram strikes partnership to promote financial inclusion

Bloomberg News

MoneyGram will collaborate with Creditcare Technology, a multinational consumer finance firm, to extend financial services to underserved markets. Creditcare offers personal loans, remittances and other financial services through a network of about 35,000 brick-and-mortar locations. The MoneyGram partnership will add another 12,000 locations, according to Creditcare. MoneyGram was recently taken private through a $1.8 billion deal with the private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners, a move that was designed to allow the money transfer network to more quickly add new products. — John Adams

Investment in Canadian fintech declines

Stephanie Foden/Bloomberg

Investors poured $810 million into financial technology in Canada during the first half of 2022, a decline of about 50% from $1.9 billion during the second half of 2021, according to KPMG. Twenty-five of the 85 deals during the first half were seed investments, 23 early stage and 17 late stage. Twenty-nine of the deals involved cryptocurrency firms, eight were for payment companies and eight were for firms that develop regulatory compliance technology. KPMG characterized the decline as a "re-balancing" from unusually high levels and said broader interest in fintech remains strong. — John Adams

COO promoted to top job at payment tech firm Cantaloupe

Ravi Venkatesan.

Cantaloupe, a retail payments firm based in Atlanta, promoted its chief operating officer, Ravi Venkatesan, to CEO. Venkatesan succeeds Sean Feeney, who is retiring. Cantaloupe specializes in migrating companies from coin-operated payments to cloud-hosted digital acceptance, mostly for vending machines in micro merchants, entertainment, sports and health care facilities. Cantaloupe also announced it has hired Guarav Singal as chief technology officer, effective Sept. 12. Gaurav joins Cantaloupe from the Georgia Lottery Commission, where he was the executive vice president and chief information officer, in charge of digital migration. — John Adams

Bank of America names investment banking strategy chief

Michael Short/Bloomberg

Bank of America named JuliAnn Burkhardt chief strategy officer for global investment banking, succeeding Dave Fishman. Burkhardt, who is based in New York, first joined BofA in 2007, leaving in 2015 for a stint at Deutsche Bank, according to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority records. She rejoined Charlotte, North Carolina-based BofA in 2017, and was most recently a managing director within consumer and retail investment banking. Burkhardt will continue to work with key clients in that sector while serving in her new position, a rotational leadership role that was established in 2020, according to an internal memo. "In this role, JuliAnn will be responsible for partnering with our global group heads to lead strategic initiatives that drive the investment banking business across our sectors, products and regions," Thomas Sheehan, head of global investment banking, wrote in the memo. Burkhardt will report to Sheehan and work closely with the group's chief operating officer, Kathy Bolner, he said. Fishman, also based in New York, will rejoin the global mergers and acquisitions team as co-head of technology, media and telecommunications M&A, alongside David King and Shawn Liu, according to a separate memo. He will also serve as co-head of private sales and divestitures, alongside Andrew Martin. A BofA spokesman confirmed the contents of the memos and declined to comment further. — Gillian Tan, Bloomberg News

Goldman recruiter in chief exiting after two-plus years in role

Bentley de Beyer is leaving Goldman Sachs Group after about two and a half years as the Wall Street giant's top recruiter. De Beyer, who joined Goldman Sachs in 2020 as head of human capital management, will leave at the end of the year and become an advisory director, the company said in a statement Tuesday. Jacqueline Arthur will take over his post effective Jan. 1. De Beyer had been charged with helping the New York-based investment bank battle the lure of Silicon Valley. He was a partner and participated on the most senior decision-making body, known internally as the management committee. Before Goldman Sachs, de Beyer was a human-resources executive at Johnson & Johnson. — Sridhar Natarajan, Bloomberg News

JPMorgan recruits Microsoft veteran for crypto and blockchain payments role

Invest in Crypto Ecosystem, Just Not the Coins, PGIM COO Says

Erhan Demirtas/Bloomberg

JPMorgan Chase's corporate payments division hired a former Microsoft corporate treasurer and chief investment officer, Tahreem Kampton, as senior payments executive to focus on the future of cryptocurrency and blockchain-related payments, Coindesk reported. Kampton served in various roles at Microsoft beginning in 1998 until he retired earlier this year to pursue other opportunities. In 2020, JPMorgan launched the Onyx blockchain platform for wholesale payments. — Kate Fitzgerald

Apple Pay surpasses Mastercard in annual transaction value

Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

A new study suggests Apple Pay is the second most popular digital payment system behind Visa, recently surpassing Mastercard in the total annual value of transactions processed, AppleInsider reports. Apple Pay accounted for 92% of mobile wallet debit transactions last year, pushing Apple Pay's annual transaction value to a total of $6 trillion, edging past Mastercard's total. Visa remains No. 1 with approximately $10 trillion worth of transactions per year. — Kate Fitzgerald

JPMorgan 'green economy' team adds Fifth Third veteran

Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

JPMorgan Chase's commercial banking team has a new member in Eric Cohen, who will lead the New York company's "green economy" banking group. Cohen was most recently a managing director of the renewable energy finance team at Fifth Third Bancorp and co-led the Cincinnati company's sustainable financing and climate strategy council, JPMorgan said. He will oversee the commercial bank's strategy for renewable energy, efficiency technology, sustainable finance, agriculture and food technology, and clean energy mobility. JPMorgan's green economy banking team works with companies that are advancing decarbonization through new technology. — Allissa Kline