10 Who Had a Rough Year in 2012
December 27, 2012 3:30 PM
These financial services executives are surely happy to see this year end and hoping for better results in 2013.
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Stuart Gulliver, CEO, HSBC
The global banking giant has made great strides in its stated goals of reducing overhead and improving its risk profile, but the progress was overshadowed by the revelation of a slew of anti-money-laundering violations that led to a record-setting $1.9 billion fine and another hit to HSBC's reputation.
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(Image: Bloomberg News)
Vikram Pandit, former CEO, Citigroup
The official story was that he resigned voluntarily, but it was soon revealed that Pandit was ousted in a boardroom coup engineered by Chairman Michael O'Neill. Pandit is credited with returning Citi to health following its near-collapse in 2008, but his contentious relationship with regulators and his failure to grasp some of Citi's business lines ultimately cost him his job, according to news reports.
(Image: Bloomberg News)
John Koelmel, Chairman, CEO, First Niagara Financial Group
Most bank stocks have rebounded from a punishing 2011, but First Niagara's shares are still trading at roughly 60% of book value as investors have questioned whether it paid too much for its acquisition of 195 branches from HSBC. Koelmel insists that the $1.1 billion deal will pay off, but until he's proved correct, expect First Niagara — one of the most country's most aggressive acquirers in recent years — to remain on the sidelines.
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(Image: Bloomberg News)
Scott Thompson, former CEO, Yahoo
PayPal's former president was expected to make Yahoo a more prominent player in the payments world, but his abrupt departure after it was discovered that he fudged his resume left the company's payments strategy in limbo. Thompson quickly found another job, but "CEO of the online shopping company Shoprunner" doesn't have quite the same ring as "CEO of Yahoo."
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(Image: Bloomberg News)
Douglas Bergeron, CEO, VeriFone
December has been an especially cruel month for Bergeron. First The Wall Street Journal reported that Bergeron was being investigated for insider trading , and just days later the company essentially surrendered to rival Square when it announced that it was scrapping plans to sell a card-reading phone attachment, dubbed Sail, directly to merchants.
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Ina Drew, former Chief Investment Officer, JPMorgan Chase
Drew didn't make the trades in what became to be known as the "London Whale" scandal — and there's debate whether she even knew about them — but they ultimately cost JPM $6 billion in the second quarter and Drew her job .
Bob Diamond, former CEO, Barclays
Just 18 months after he was named CEO of the global banking giant, the American-born Diamond was forced to resign in the wake of a Libor-manipulating scandal that led to a $453 million fine from U.S. and British regulators.
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Bank organizers
Establishing a new bank these days is not just difficult, it's nearly impossible. If you exclude banks set up to acquire failed banks, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has not approved any new bank charters in more than two years.
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Joe Reid, Chairman, CEO, Capitol Bancorp
In truth it's been a rough several years for Reid, but the disclosure in early December that a private-equity group had called off its planned $50 million investment in the Lansing, Mich.-based Capitol could be a death blow to the beleaguered multi-bank holding company.
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(Image: Michael Chu)
Victor Karpiak, CEO, First Financial Northwest
Karpiak waged an expensive, year-long battle to keep a dissident investor off the company's board, but it was to no avail. To settle a lawsuit, Karpiak agreed in December to let a representative of activist investor group PL Capital join its board. He also said he would step down as chairman of the Renton, Wash., company — though he remains its chairman — and will resign from the board in September.
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