MidWestOne acquires Denver Bankshares, leadership changes at JPMorgan

September 29, 2023 12:01 PM

MidWestOne will reinvest proceeds of branch sales into Denver Bankshares; promotions are afoot in JPMorgan's investment banking unit; Bethpage Federal Credit Union expands into Queens and New Jersey; and more in the weekly banking news roundup.

MidWestOne to reinvest proceeds of branch sales into bank acquisition in Denver

MidWestOne Financial Group in Iowa City, Iowa, said Wednesday that it agreed to acquire Denver Bankshares in an all-cash deal valued at $32.6 million. The deal, a bid to expand in the Denver area, will be financed with proceeds from the $6.5 billion-asset MidWestOne's previously announced sale of its Florida operations to DFCU Financial, a credit union based in Dearborn, Michigan. That sale, expected to close in the first half of 2024, would include two branches — one in Naples and the other in Fort Myers. MidWestOne's acquisition of Denver Bankshares, which includes its $272 million-asset Bank of Denver, is slated to close early next year. The deal would give the Iowa bank roughly $198 of loans and $242 million of deposits in the Denver market. — Jim Dobbs

Leadership changes on tap for JPMorgan Chase’s investment banking unit

JPMorgan Chase is promoting Jay Horine to head its North America investment banking business, according to an internal memo. Horine, who joined JPMorgan in 2006, will succeed Fernando Rivas, who plans to retire in early 2024, the memo said. Horine will retain his role as global industry co-head of energy, power, renewables, metals and mining, the memo said. Rivas joined the firm in 1995 and has overseen investment banking in North America since 2020. In addition to Horine's promotion, JPMorgan announced several new global heads for various industry groups, all of whom will join the global management team and report to Jim Casey and Vis Raghavan, co-heads of global investment banking. The bank is also creating a new digital banking group to be led by Samik Chandarana, who most recently served as chief data and analytics officer in the company's corporate and investment banking division, the memo said. — Allissa Kline

Bethpage Federal Credit Union announces expansion plans into Queens, New Jersey

Bethpage Federal Credit Union in Bethpage, New York, is adding five branches spread throughout New Jersey and the New York borough of Queens over the next 12 months. Locations will open in Sunnyside, Ozone Park, Cherry Hill, Forest Hills and the Long Island hamlet of Ronkonkoma, signaling the $13 billion-asset credit union's first entry into Queens and outside of the state. "Branch expansion throughout the tri-state area is a major part of our growth strategy," Linda Armyn, president and CEO of Bethpage Federal Credit Union, said in a press release Wednesday. —Frank Gargano

Credit union antitrust suit against Apple can proceed

A judge has rejected Apple's request to dismiss a lawsuit from a group of credit unions that claim the technology company is violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White ruled that the credit unions, including Illinois-based Consumers Co-op Credit Union, Iowa-based Affinity Credit Union and GreenState Credit Union, could make their case that Apple is enforcing a monopoly over digital wallets for iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches. Apple requires users who make payments with iPhones or other Apple devices to register for Apple Pay, then Apple charges a fee for each payment. Apple is frequently sued or investigated by regulators over this practice, along with other Apple policies such as requiring the use of Apple's payment rails for App Store purchases — then charging external developers that sell on the App Store fees for those transactions. Google is also often subject to legal or government action over similar payment policies. Apple and Google argue the fees fund security for the online markets and payment transactions. — John Adams

Wells Fargo makes its Fargo virtual assistant bilingual

The Fargo virtual assistant embedded in the Wells Fargo mobile app now speaks Spanish. On Wednesday, the bank announced that customers who set their language preference to Spanish can talk or type requests — and receive answers — in that language. Spanish-speaking Wells Fargo employees helped test and train Fargo to understand regional language differences and dialects. The bilingual nature of Fargo is relatively rare in traditional banking; in April 2022, U.S. Bancorp in Minneapolis debuted a Spanish version of its voice-enabled Smart Assistant in its mobile app, or Asistente Inteligente de U.S. Bank. Community First Credit Union in Santa Rosa, California, trained its own virtual assistant to speak Spanish in 2021. — Miriam Cross

Visa and Tiptap bring cashless local-donations tool to U.S. bank branches

Visa has joined forces with contactless-payment startup Tiptap to enable U.S. banks to digitally accept small-dollar local charitable donations within branches, the companies announced Thursday. The partnership creates a secure, cashless method for Visa member banks to support various community charities through Tiptap's customizable contactless-payment devices, which can be displayed on a bank-branch countertop. The program tracks customer preferences and charitable interests, allowing banks to support multiple charities. Tiptap, headquartered in Ontario, Canada, launched in 2018. — Kate Fitzgerald

Ex-UBS Chairman Weber to join fintech Raisin as deposits grow

Former UBS Group Chairman Axel Weber will join the advisory board of Raisin, a German financial technology firm that helps savers find better rates. Weber will start in December as an advisor and board member to help the Berlin-based financial technology firm to continue to grow, Raisin said in a statement.

The Financial Times reported earlier that Weber will probably lead the board. A Raisin spokesman declined to comment on whether Weber will chair the advisory board, which consists of six external members. Raisin also said that its assets under administration have risen to more than €50 billion ($53.1 billion) from €30 billion in December. — Nicholas Comfort, Bloomberg News