Visa and Car IQ team up, Citizens names a California chief and more

July 14, 2023 4:00 PM

Visa wants to expand in-car payments tech; Citizens Financial installs president to oversee growing California market; undergrads win banking competition and more in the weekly banking news roundup.

Bloomberg

Citizens installs president to oversee growing California market

Citizens Financial Group has promoted Mark Lehmann to the role of president of the company's growing California market, according to a press release. Lehmann will lead Citizens' commercial and private banking operations in the Golden State, where Citizens recently added 50 senior private bankers and other support staff who worked at the now-shuttered First Republic Bank. Lehmann is the chief executive of JMP Group, a San Francisco-based capital markets firm that Citizens acquired in 2021. He will retain that role in addition to his new responsibilities, the company said. Citizens now has more than 200 bankers and advisors in California, it said. —Allissa Kline

Angus Mordant/Bloomberg

Wells Fargo names Dawson Her Many Horses a managing director

Wells Fargo named Dawson Her Many Horses, the company's head of Native American banking, a managing director. A member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, Her Many Horses is a member of the Commercial Banking Diverse Segments team and co-chairs the Wells Fargo National Unbanked Advisory Task Force. He joined Wells Fargo in 2018 as senior vice president in middle-market banking to rebuild the firm's Native American banking effort, and was promoted in 2021 to head of Native American banking in the commercial-banking unit. He serves on the board of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, is a leadership-council member for the Center for Indian Country Development at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and is the chair of the Native American Visiting Committee at Dartmouth College. —Marnie Muñoz, Bloomberg News

Orange County’s Credit Union names new CEO

Orange County's Credit Union names industry veteran Kathy Jumper as its new chief executive after a year-long search. Jumper will replace Lucy Ito, Orange County's interim CEO, in leading the Santa Ana-based credit union with $2.5 billion of assets. Named one of the most powerful women in credit unions by American Banker last year, Jumper has held a number of senior positions in financial institutions including, most recently, overseeing membership growth as the chief retail officer at Members 1st Federal Credit Union and serving on the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions (NAFCU) Regulatory and Cyber Committee. "I'm thrilled to join Orange County's Credit Union. For 85 years, Orange County's Credit Union has delivered exceptional member experience and has built strong connections to the communities it serves," Jumper said in a press release. —Sabrina Lee

California Credit Union jumps to community charter, expands to two new counties

California Credit Union is expanding to two counties, San Bernardino and Ventura, and converting to a community charter in Los Angeles county. The $4.5 billion dollar CCU, headquartered in Glendale and San Diego, is classified as a Community Development Financial Institution that serves traditionally underbanked groups. Founded by a Los Angeles teacher, the credit union serves several Northern and Southern California counties, as well as school employees throughout the state. "We look forward to building relationships within our new communities so we're not just providing best-in-class financial services, but also offering financial education programs, supporting under-resourced areas and community members and partnering with local organizations to make a meaningful difference in the health of our communities," said Steve O'Connell, CCU's president and CEO. —Sabrina Lee

Visa partners with Car IQ to expand in-car payments tech

Visa has signed a collaboration deal with Car IQ to support transactions such as fuel purchases, tolls, parking, insurance and repairs using the Car IQ Pay digital wallet. Car IQ's authentication technique matches accounts to vehicles, enabling riders to transact with merchants without using a physical card. Car IQ also accumulates transaction data to enable real-time offers and personalized incentive marketing for fleets, merchants and individual drivers. "Our collaboration with Visa allows us to accelerate the adoption of vehicle payments and make them a seamless part of the fleet experience today, and the consumer experience in the future," said Sterling Pratz, CEO of Car IQ, in a release. After stagnating for several years due to a chip shortage, in-car payment technology is starting to accelerate, with JPMorgan Chase and Discover among the firms recently adding new in-car commerce products. —John Adams

SLFCU CEO re-elected to NAFCU board of directors

President and chief executive officer at Sandia Laboratory Federal Credit Union, Stephanie Sherrod, was elected this week to serve a second term on the board of directors for the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions. With more than 25 years of experience at credit unions, Sherrod will serve on the trade group's 11-member board of executives as the representative for the U.S. Western region. "Credit unions share a commitment to providing outstanding financial education, services and products to our members and the communities we serve," Sherrod said in a statement. "I look forward to continuing to support NAFCU's important work." — Charles Gorrivan.

Morgan Stanley hires JPMorgan North America M&A head

Marco Caggiano, JPMorgan Chase's head of North America mergers and acquisitions, is leaving the firm to become vice chairman at Morgan Stanley, according to a person familiar with the matter. Caggiano joined JPMorgan in 2000 and was named co-head of North America M&A in 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile. Representatives for Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan declined to comment. There's been a lot of talent shuffling across U.S. investment banking this year as dealmaking lags, European banks retreat from the market and stateside players slash headcount. —Matthew Monks, with assistance from Michelle F. Davis, Bloomberg News

University of Tennessee undergraduates win CSBS Community Bank competition

A student team from the University of Tennessee at Martin took first place out of 34 student teams at the CSBS 2023 Community Bank Case Study competition. Research this year focused on examining talent retention, succession planning and technology leveraging at community banks. The winning team — Ben Arnold, Cole Hollis, Dan Hoffman, Libby Rushton and Abbey Strong — were supported by John Clark; Lajuana Davis, Ph.D.; and Mark Farley, Ph.D.; and partnered with Commercial Bank & Trust Company in Paris, Tennessee. "The University of Tennessee-Martin's case study earned top honors due to its particularly rich insight and detail, as well as its excellent executive summary," said CSBS Executive Vice President for Policy & Supervision Karen Lawson. Second and third place were awarded to teams from Iowa State University and Messiah University respectively, and the three teams' work will be published in the CSBS Journal of Community Bank Case Studies this October. — Sabrina Lee

New board member announced for Ulster Savings Bank

On Tuesday, Ulster County Savings Bank, headquartered in Kingston, NY, announced the appointment of long-time Hudson Valley resident Maureen Halahan as a new board member. Halahan has over 20 years of experience in the field of economic development. In 2002, she became the chief executive officer at Orange County Partnership, which, under her leadership, transitioned from a public-private organization to a 100% privately funded corporation that attracted more than 300 major new companies to the region and created more than 10,000 new jobs, generating billions of dollars in capital investments. Ulster County Savings Bank has assets of $1.3 billion and 15 branches throughout the county, with additional mortgage lending offices in Orange, Dutchess and Westchester counties. — Traci Parks

Synovus taps new president

Columbus, Georgia-based Synovus Bank has picked senior director in wholesale banking Charlie Clark as its new president, effective immediately. A 17-year member of the $62 billion-asset community bank, Clark will manage Synovus's operations and nearly 5,000 employees across five states. "I'm excited to see Charlie step into this expanded role," said Wayne Akin, Synovus's chief community banking and wealth services officer. "Charlie is a trusted partner with his clients and those who work alongside him across our company." —Charles Gorrivan.

U.K. Supreme Court backs banks in AAP fraud ruling

Banks are not responsible for transaction fraud when customers have issued the relevant payment from their account, according to a United Kingdom Supreme Court ruling this week that sided with London-based Barclays PLC. The judges unanimously ruled the bank was not responsible for funds a customer loses in an authorized push payment fraud. That limits the legal pathways open to victims of APP fraud, which cost U.K. customers 583 million pounds ($752 million) in 2021, a 39% uptick from 2020. "It is not for the bank to concern itself with the wisdom or risks of its customer's payment decisions," Supreme Court Judge George Leggatt said in the ruling, which overturned a lower court ruling from two years ago. —Charles Gorrivan.