Bancorp Taps Former Citi Exec for Top Post

The Bancorp in Wilmington, Del., has selected a former Citigroup executive as its next chief executive.

The $4.4 billion-asset company said in a press release Tuesday that Damian Kozlowski will also become president of its bank and join its board on June 1. He will succeed John Chrystal, who has been the company's interim CEO since December; Chrystal will remain a director.

Kozlowski was an executive at Citigroup from 2000 to 2007, finishing his career at the banking giant as chief executive of its global private bank. More recently he was president and chief executive of Modern Bank.

Kozlowski "brings to The Bancorp well-rounded knowledge of the business of banking and deep understanding of its regulatory complexities," Daniel Cohen, the company's chairman, said in the release. "His experience in both smaller and larger financial institutions has given him the unique perspective that's required of The Bancorp's business model within the financial services and technology sectors."

The Bancorp has weathered some rough patches in recent few years.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. hit the company with an enforcement action in 2014 that curbed the growth of its prepaid business. The order also required management to beef up the company's anti-money-laundering controls.

A flurry of unwelcome — and seemingly unrelated — news followed. The FDIC assessed the company a surcharge tied to the agency's treatment of prepaid cards. The Bancorp then discovered several million dollars in unreported loan losses after it shut down its commercial bank.

In September the company put an end to recent accounting woes by filing a batch of long-overdue financial reports. The filings had been delayed by a credit review, stemming from the discovery of $28 million in unreported loan losses.

Challenges have persisted this year. The company reported a $10.9 million loss in the first quarter that largely reflected costs associated with the 2014 order. The Bancorp said last month that it expects audits and a lookback review tied to its Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money-laundering compliance to be completed early in the third quarter.