FinTech Futures: Top five news stories of the week – 3 May 2024
Here’s our pick of five of the top news stories from the world of finance and tech this week, featuring Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Franklin Templeton, Barclays, Microsoft and more.
Republic First Bank closed and sold to Fulton Bank by US regulators
Republic First Bank sold to Fulton Bank
The Philadelphia-based commercial bank was closed by the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities this week, with appointed receiver, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), entering into an agreement with Fulton Bank to “assume substantially all of the deposits and purchase substantially all of the assets” of Republic First.
All of the 32 branches previously maintained by Republic First across New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York are to reopen as branches of Fulton Bank.
The closure and sale come after Republic First previously attempted to implement a new strategy last July in a bid to bring down costs which, among other initiatives, included a letter of intent with the Norcross-Braca Group for “a new investment of at least $35 million”. However, the deal later fell through in February.
HSBC CEO Noel Quinn to step down after five years in the role
Commenting on his decision to step down this week, Quinn remarks that “after an intense five years it is now the right time for me to get a better balance between my personal and business life”, with plans to “pursue a portfolio career going forward”.
Quinn began his career at HSBC in 1987, ascending through various roles including head of commercial finance for Europe and regional head of commercial banking for the Asia Pacific region. He also previously served as the bank’s chief executive of global commercial banking.
HSBC has revealed that its board has already initiated a “formal process” to find Quinn’s successor, considering both internal and external candidates.
Barclays reportedly leading the race to take over GM credit card programme from Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs is reportedly in talks with Barclays over its GM credit card programme
A report by The Wall Street Journal this week says Barclays is the leading contender in the race to take over the programme, which specifically serves purchasers and owners of General Motors vehicles.
The British bank previously went head-to-head with Goldman Sachs four years ago during the initial sale of the programme by its then-issuer Capital One but was outdone by the US bank’s reported $2.5 billion bid.
Reports that Goldman was looking to sell the business to a new issuer emerged in November last year, amid its continued retreat from retail banking.
This retreat has included the sale of its Personal Financial Management (PFM) business to Creative Planning last August, and the sale of buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider GreenSky to a Sixth Street-led investor consortium in October.
Franklin Templeton partners Microsoft to build “advanced financial AI platform”
The US-based investment management firm will leverage the development tools of Microsoft’s Azure AI service suite – including its OpenAI service, GPT-4 large language model, and AI Search and AI Document Intelligence functions – to bring the platform to fruition.
The initiative falls under its endeavour to improve the productivity of its sales and marketing teams and offer “more personalised support” for its clients through the consolidation and simplification of structured data and contextual financial information.
Deep Srivastav, head of AI at Franklin Templeton, says the platform will apply “a multi-layer intelligence approach, where individual AI capabilities can be synchronised to create an advanced level of intelligence for our business”.
Monese and coreless banking subsidiary XYB secure fresh funding ahead of separation
Monese and XYB secure funds ahead of split
The banking services provider has not disclosed exactly how much was raised in total, or which investors have provided the funds. However, the firm has said that XYB specifically raised capital “from both existing and from new investors”.
Monese confirmed it’s intentioned to operate its consumer-facing money app and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) unit as two separate companies late last month.
According to the group’s statement, the two will “continue to collaborate on strategic partnerships” post-separation, with Monese to continue being led by its existing CEO Norris Koppel, and XYB to be led by a new CEO, the appointment of which is expected to be announced “shortly”.
