Optus Bank's new president, DesignRush lists top digital growth states

August 2, 2024 3:27 PM

In this week's banking news roundup: South Carolina's Optus Bank appoints Benita Lefft its new president; B2B marketplace DesignRush releases its hottest states for digital business growth; Morgan Stanley announces Ellen Zentner's newly created team within the bank's investment wing; and more.

Optus Bank makes leadership changes, appoints a new president

Optus Bank in Columbia, South Carolina, promoted its chief operations officer, Benita Lefft, to the role of president, the company announced this month in a press release. Lefft succeeds Dominik Mjartan, who has held both the president and CEO titles since 2017 and has helped steer the bank's substantial growth since 2020. Mjartan will remain CEO and also become vice chairman of the board, and Lefft will retain the COO role, according to the release.

As president, Lefft will oversee Optus' primary operating lines of business, risk management, finance and all support functions, the release said. Prior to joining Optus in 2022, Lefft worked at Wells Fargo as the head of middle market banking credit services, according to her LinkedIn profile. Between 2002 and 2006, she was the chief operating officer at Wachovia Bank. Optus is one of 18 Black-owned banks in the United States. Among the nation's minority banks, it has been one of the most successful in recent years in terms of receiving equity capital and deposits from bigger banks, corporations and the federal government. — Allissa Kline

DesignRush releases list of states with top digital growth

West Virginia, Mississippi and Kansas were named the top three states with the highest digital business growth and business opportunities this year.

DesignRush, a B2B marketplace, released its Hottest States for Digital Business Growth this week. DesignRush accounts for several factors, such as tax efficiency, state gross domestic product and business potential to formulate the list.

California was named the fifth best state for digital business growth, while Texas, New York and Florida came in at lower positions in the top 10, despite some of the highest agency counts and strong market demand. Minnesota, Arkansas and Missouri ranked the lowest in business potential with high tax burdens for digital ventures, according to the DesignRush press release. — Christopher Buchanan

Morgan Stanley’s Zentner to lead new global investment team

Morgan Stanley chief U.S. economist Ellen Zentner is leaving her post to lead a newly created team within the bank's investment wing.

Zentner will lead the new thematic and macro investing team at Morgan Stanley's Global Investment Office starting Aug. 1, according to an internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg News.

She will take over as chief economic strategist and global head of thematic and macro investing and will report to Lisa Shalett, the chief investment officer of the bank's wealth management unit.

Zentner, who was head of U.S. macroeconomics at Morgan Stanley since 2015, is one of the last remaining female chief U.S. economists on Wall Street. Men primarily hold those positions at the nearly two dozen financial institutions designated by the Federal Reserve as primary dealers — prestigious organizations that help the central bank implement monetary policy. — Augusta Saraiva and Liz Capo McCormick, Bloomberg News

New York attorney general’s office issues website protection guides

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced new privacy guides to better protect consumers from website tracking and prevent privacy violations by businesses.

The Business Guide to Website Privacy Controls and Consumer Guide to Tracking on the Web went live on the attorney general's website this week.

In a press release, James said the new guides will help to prevent solicitous activity by advertising companies and protect New York consumers' online privacy.

The office has also issued consumer alerts on credit monitoring, sent a joint letter to Meta addressing fraud and scams on their social media sites and released a comprehensive data security guide for businesses within the last year.

"When New Yorkers visit websites, they deserve to have the peace of mind that they won't be tracked without their knowledge, and won't have their personal information sold to advertisers," James said in the release. — Christopher Buchanan

SocGen’s global banking and advisory head is said to step down

Societe Generale's head of global banking and advisory, Demetrio Salorio, is stepping down a little over a year after getting the role, according to people familiar with the move who asked not to be named discussing private information.

SocGen's global banking unit has been going through several changes since Chief Executive Officer Slawomir Krupa took the reins of the lender last year. As part of his plan to boost fees earned from financing and deal advisory without allocating more capital to the business, he created new units aimed at selling more assets to investors.

Salorio, who started his career at SocGen in Madrid in 1991, held various positions in the corporate and investment banking unit before his appointment as head of global banking and advisory last year. — Alexandre Rajbhandari, Bloomberg News

Dimon pushes for private-sector representation in next cabinet

JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said the next U.S. president must work to bring together a "deeply divided" nation, and said the business world should have representation in the Cabinet.

"The private sector has huge wells of expertise and produces 85% of our nation's jobs," Dimon said in an opinion piece published Friday in the Washington Post. "It should have a seat at the table. Yet in recent years, government leaders have often failed to engage those in industry. A president should put the most talented people, including those from business and the opposite party, into their Cabinet."

Trump said in a recent interview with Bloomberg Businessweek that he's changed his view of Dimon, whom he assailed last year as a "highly overrated Globalist." The former president said he could envision Dimon — thought to be contemplating a political career — as "somebody that I would consider" for Treasury secretary.

"I have a lot of respect for Jamie Dimon," Trump said.

Dimon has not endorsed either candidate. — Daniel Taub, Bloomberg News