Remembering David Rockefeller; Wells still reeling

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

End of an era: David Rockefeller, the last surviving grandson of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller and the chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Bank during the 1970s, died Monday at 101. Although his family never owned more than 5% of the bank's shares, Chase – later to become JPMorgan Chase – became known as "David's bank." Following his tenure at the bank, Rockefeller was one of the world's major philanthropists.

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The Financial Times eulogized him as "the last of a breed. An old-style banker-statesman, he ran Chase Manhattan at the height of its power in an era before bond traders came to dominate the world of international finance. A philanthropist with a keen sense of civic duty, he left his mark on a wide range of institutions as well as on the Manhattan skyline." Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, American Banker

Plunging: New checking account and credit card openings at Wells Fargo "fell drastically" in February, continuing a spiral downward that began after its phony accounts scandal came to light last October. Credit card applications dropped 55% last month from the same period a year ago, while new checking accounts fell 43%, the biggest year-on-year declines since the bank began disclosing that information after the scandal. On the bright side, consumer and small business deposit balances rose 6%, and the bank's customer loyalty scores rose for the fourth consecutive month although they remain below last year's levels. Mary Mack, Wells' head of retail banking, said the bank will begin a new marketing campaign next month.Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, American Banker

Major coup: In what the FT describes as "a big loss for Morgan Stanley and a hiring coup" for his new employer, Eric Bischof is joining Bank of America as global co-head of its financial institutions group. The banker "has worked on some of the largest deals in the insurance sector over the past decade," the paper said, and advised the New York Federal Reserve Bank during the near collapse of AIG. More recently, he advised Ace on its 2015 acquisition of Chubb and Fortress Investment Group's sale last month to SoftBank. Financial Times, New York Times

Wall Street Journal

Sad sector: Marketplace lender Prosper Marketplace said its annual loss grew to $118.7 million last year, more than four times the size of its $26 million loss for 2015, "the latest demonstration of the struggles the once-hot sector encountered after money managers cooled on funding loans," the paper commented. Loan volume fell 41% to $2.2 billion as a result of investors "pausing or significantly reducing" their purchases of the company's loans, while revenue dropped by a third to $132.9 million. The Prosper news follows other big losses in the sector: On Deck Capital, which makes online small-business loans, lost $85.5 million last year, while consumer lender LendingClub lost $146 million.

Paying the man: If you charge customers for taking their deposits instead of paying them, will they still come? Apparently so. Alternative Bank Schweiz, the first Swiss bank to charge all of its customers for taking their deposits as interest rates dropped below zero, posted a huge jump in profit for 2016. The bank earned 1.8 million francs last year, up 33% from 2015, and it added 900 new customers. "There has been a positive impact on the bank's profitability," said Martin Rohner, the bank's chief executive.

Quotable ...

"David Rockefeller led an extraordinary life — making an indelible, positive mark on our world as a leader in philanthropy, the arts, business and global affairs." – Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the successor bank to Chase Manhattan