Take That, Palo Alto
New Yorkers rarely take a back seat on anything. But many in the Big Apple feel the city has spent too long in Silicon Valley's shadow when it comes to fostering technology innovation, particularly for financial services. That's why New York investors braved the July heat to attend the first-ever FinTech Innovation Lab, backed by the Partnership for New York City and Accenture, to deliver new (and New York-bred) financial products from six start-ups, aided by feedback and testing from 10 global institutions in the city. One of the show's hits was Zipmark, which introduced mobile-payments technology using lower-cost check-processing networks. Firms also unveiled new tools in market data analysis and risk management, such as Aqumin's 3D software, adapted from the oil and gas industry to graphically chart relationships and patterns in market data. "It's great to see such vibrant innovation from the New York startup community," says Andy Brown (pictured), the chief technology officer at UBS. "We have found technology that we can use at UBS through FinTech."
Clear Call
The Clearing House Association, the advocacy arm of the commercial bank-owned Clearing House payments and settlement firm, has found more firepower for its policy efforts by hiring a former White House official to oversee regulatory affairs. Dan McCardell was the deputy public liaison director for the Bush White House who helped round up business community support for the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act as well as TARP. McCardell, most recently in a post at Harvard Law School, arrives at The Clearing House with a full slate of policy issues to tackle. They include lobbying to amend the Fed's proposed rules for capital planning at big banks, and backing patent reform measures aimed at curbing intellectual-property lawsuits against banks over payments and processing methods.
Branding & Beyond
A year after Cynthia Williams was named executive vice president at BB&T-and two years after she was appointed chief communications officer-the 25-year bank veteran was chosen to also head corporate branding, marketing and advertising. BB&T plans to integrate its PR and branding efforts under Williams.
Payback: Carlos Loumiet, a Miami lawyer who in 2007 beat back OCC charges that he helped the now-defunct Hamilton Bank hide losses, has won another victory against the agency. The federal D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in July that he was entitled to recover up to $1 million in legal fees from the OCC for the cost of defending himself. Loumiet calls the decision a victory for bank attorneys, who might otherwise fear they "cannot respond to their clients in good faith without worrying about government retaliation."
It's Been Fun
Robert Bostrom came to Freddie Mac in the aftermath of accounting scandals, only to weather an even bigger storm as general counsel of the GSE during its post-crisis tumult. He's now off to join law firm SNR Denton, as co-head of its financial institutions and funds practice.
PE Refugee
Jack Kopnisky and his private-equity partners from The Related Cos., including the New York real estate developer Stephen M. Ross, had been trying for almost two years to acquire a distressed mid-tier bank.
For the former KeyBank and First Marblehead executive, that was long enough. A month ahead of the August expiration on the partners' $1.1 billion blind-pool fund, Kopnisky stepped down from the Ross-sponsored venture (SJB Escrow) to become president and CEO of Provident Bank in Montebello, N.Y.
Kopnisky says the new job with the Hudson Valley bank gives him a chance to lead a bank in a growth market-what he and his partners had been fruitlessly pursuing through a PE deal, even with an OCC shelf charter in hand. "Frankly, we had a difficult time getting comfortable with the asset marks many of the challenged banks had in their portfolio," Kopnisky says. No word from Related or Ross, its chairman, on the fate of the blind-pool fund, which counts David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital among its investors.
