BankTown Banking & Finance News

[SydneyCarton]

New York is the de facto HQ of Wells Fargo.  All of the corporate leaders are based there.  However, Charlotte is Wells’ workhorse.  It has the most Wells employees of any city.  

[15895]

So they’re consolidating some of their NY office space into Hudson Yards by adding another 3 floors to their existing space or something? 

It’s great news for Charlotte in that it contributes to the boosting of Wells Fargo’s profile (the other tenants alone like Black Rock, Meta, etc) as a financial power house, with fairly prestigious space in NY. Seems like no expenses were spared. 

And that’s the same company with a very large presence in Charlotte. San Francisco HQ, New York prestige & Charlotte has a huge slice of the operations. So all around good news for all 3 cities.

Edited December 1, 2023 by AirNostrumMAD

[CLT2014]

52 minutes ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

So they’re consolidating some of their NY office space into Hudson Yards by adding another 3 floors to their existing space or something? 

It’s great news for Charlotte in that it contributes to the boosting of Wells Fargo’s profile (the other tenants alone like Black Rock, Meta, etc) as a financial power house, with fairly prestigious space in NY. Seems like no expenses were spared. 

And that’s the same company with a very large presence in Charlotte. San Francisco HQ, New York prestige & Charlotte has a huge slice of the operations. So all around good news for all 3 cities.

IMO it isn't really good news for San Francisco. Each move the new leadership team makes distances the company more and more from SF. They are consolidating senior leaders in one time zone to make it easier to collaborate. Charlotte has been getting some improvements to its offices as well, but San Francisco remains ignored as the company gradually winds down their large presence as people exit or retire and they backfill the job elsewhere. Charlotte and NY have both come at the expense of San Francisco in center of power / gravity in the Wells Fargo system. SF is increasingly moving to a rung below Minneapolis even and more on par with Chandler, Dallas, and Des Moines.

San Francisco: 
- No renovations to the aging and old "HQ"
- No senior leaders on the Operating Committee are actually based in San Francisco (they are largely in New York, with a handful in Charlotte)
- Sold several buildings / exited leases
- Reduced headcount
- Only 23 open job postings at more junior levels or branch positions (the company isn't backfilling leaders in SF)

New York:
- Majority of leadership team and new "defacto" HQ
- World class office facilities and home to the C-Suite
- Continued investment in offices
- Growing headcount
- 43 job openings, largely senior leadership roles and high paid positions

Edited December 1, 2023 by CLT2014

[15895]

34 minutes ago, CLT2014 said:

IMO it isn't really good news for San Francisco. Each move the new leadership team makes distances the company more and more from SF. They are consolidating senior leaders in one time zone to make it easier to collaborate. Charlotte has been getting some improvements to its offices as well, but San Francisco remains ignored as the company gradually winds down their large presence as people exit or retire and they backfill the job elsewhere. Charlotte and NY have both come at the expense of San Francisco in center of power / gravity in the Wells Fargo system. SF is increasingly moving to a rung below Minneapolis even and more on par with Chandler, Dallas, and Des Moines.

San Francisco: 
- No renovations to the aging and old "HQ"
- No senior leaders on the Operating Committee are actually based in San Francisco (they are largely in New York, with a handful in Charlotte)
- Sold several buildings / exited leases
- Reduced headcount
- Only 23 open job postings at more junior levels or branch positions (the company isn't backfilling leaders in SF)

New York:
- Majority of leadership team and new "defacto" HQ
- World class office facilities and home to the C-Suite
- Continued investment in offices
- Growing headcount
- 43 job openings, largely senior leadership roles and high paid positions

I don’t disagree at all. But they at least still have the HQ so that’s something. I’ve speculated them leaving for like. A decade now so when they leave they leave lol. 

My main point was I don’t think this comes at the expense / opportunity of Charlotte & overall good for the Bank. 

But you’re right. 

[Crucial_Infra]

Isn’t New York the de facto HQ of BofA too?  Maybe not to the same level of Wells but isn’t a lot of BofA leadership there? 

Edited December 1, 2023 by Crucial_Infra

[CLT2014]

47 minutes ago, Crucial_Infra said:

Isn’t New York the de facto HQ of BofA too?  Maybe not to the same level of Wells but isn’t a lot of BofA leadership there? 

BofA's senior leadership isn't as concentrated as Wells. It is largely split between Boston, NY, and Charlotte. The CEO and a few top leaders in his inner circle (Athanasia, O'Neill, Tyrie, et)  live in Boston. The CEO largely stays in Boston but will fly to NY and CLT as needed.

[SydneyCarton]

On 12/1/2023 at 6:03 PM, Crucial_Infra said:

Isn’t New York the de facto HQ of BofA too?  Maybe not to the same level of Wells but isn’t a lot of BofA leadership there? 

It is.  Top bankers want to be in NY.  Citadel exemplifies this.  It moved its HQ from Chicago to Miami, but everyone wants to be in NY, so they’re building a 1,350’ new tower in NY (on top of the new 800’ tower they just built).    Charlotte is ideal for the worker bees who make $400k or less, as that income doesn’t go far in NY.  

Edited December 4, 2023 by SydneyCarton

[CLT2014]

14 hours ago, SydneyCarton said:

It is.  Top bankers want to be in NY.  Citadel exemplifies this.  It moved its HQ from Chicago to Miami, but everyone wants to be in NY, so they’re building a 1,350’ new tower in NY (on top of the new 800’ tower they just built).    Charlotte is ideal for the worker bees who make $400k or less, as that income doesn’t go far in NY.  

That's great for Citadel, but not as accurate for Bank of America where leaders are spread throughout the bank's hubs and no city hosts more than 1/3 of the leadership team. I'd say BofA's defacto headquarters is "Zoom". The leadership team has a lot of experience working in different cities from each other. Really Bank of America is like many large multi-national companies where senior leaders sit in multiple cities and it is tough to say decisions really come out of one place. Charlotte has absolutely lost some influence though, in particular on the Consumer-side where Athanasia (President Regional Banking) has concentrated some key talent in his inner circle in Boston rather than Charlotte, despite that historically being Charlotte's strength in the BofA network.  

Boston: CEO, President Regional Banking (2nd highest paid position in company), President of Retail Banking, Global General Counsel

New York: CFO, CHRO, CRO, President Merrill, Presidents Markets, President Investment Bank

Charlotte: CTO, COO, CAO, Chief Audit

Atlanta: President Commercial Banking, President Preferred Banking

London: President of International

Los Angeles: President Business Banking

Edited December 4, 2023 by CLT2014

[15895]

 

15 hours ago, SydneyCarton said:

It is.  Top bankers want to be in NY.  Citadel exemplifies this.  It moved its HQ from Chicago to Miami, but everyone wants to be in NY, so they’re building a 1,350’ new tower in NY (on top of the new 800’ tower they just built).    Charlotte is ideal for the worker bees who make $400k or less, as that income doesn’t go far in NY.  

I think there’s a little extrapolating of things that may be completely different from one another. 

Working for a NY based bank & BofA in the past, by farrr the vast majority, IMO, are worker bees in NY & no way are making close to $400k lol.

Saying “top bankers” prefer NY will just rile people up on here. It sort of insinuates they’re like. Not as important. I get what you mean though, especially when working with large clients but by far the vast majority are doing the same thing they do in Charlotte. Government workers in DC, Bankers in NY, Entertainment Industry people in LA, 90% of the workers have way more vanilla jobs than what people imagine. 

NY is just different from Charlotte. They have to build tall because they have nowhere else to build. 

In general, what’s the point of talking about this? (That sounds rude but that’s not how I intend it). Whether Charlotte can compete with NY for bank jobs? Why Charlotte isn’t building super talls? Whether it’ll get the WF HQ?

 

[joenc]

They're all bureaucrats and will get replaced by AI within 10 years.

[kermit]

The Observer has an obituary for Ed Crutchfield, former CEO of First Union (from 1984 -2001). Crutchfield was at the helm when First Union purchased Signet Bank (Richmond) and Core States (Philadelphia) among other acquisitions. He grew up in Albemarle and was (IMO) one of a series of local bank CEO's who's local ties were largely responsible for Charlotte's two big banks remaining in town during their rapid expansion, as well as the banks being heavily engaged in Charlotte’s development. We are sorely missing those sorts of ties now.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/article283761203.html

 

Edited January 3 by kermit

[Genesis704]

On 12/1/2023 at 11:30 AM, SydneyCarton said:

New York is the de facto HQ of Wells Fargo.  All of the corporate leaders are based there.  However, Charlotte is Wells’ workhorse.  It has the most Wells employees of any city.  

Edit: Delete.

Edited January 5 by Genesis704

[KJHburg]

I am not surprised by what this article says but I can't believe how old this photo is of the skyline they are using talking about BofA work from office policy.

Charlotte’s B of A Warns At-Home Workers (connectcre.com)

[SydneyCarton]

I’m not surprised about this.  If Chase can build a new $4b, 1,400’ HQ in NY, they can surely splurge for a new tower in Clt.

 

https://news.yahoo.com/chase-bank-details-plan-add-103000848.html

Chase Bank details plan to add branches, jobs in Charlotte, part of big US expansion

Chase Jordan

Wed, February 7, 2024 at 5:30 AM EST3 min read

 

•  

 

Chase Bank is planning to further compete with banking giants in Charlotte by adding more than 15 branches by the end of 2026 and hiring hundreds of people.

The New York-based financial institution announced a multibillion-sdollar expansion plan on Tuesday, which includes opening more than 500 branches, renovating 1,700 locations and hiring 3,500 people by 2027.

There are currently 19 locations in the Charlotte region. Justin Brovitz, regional director for the Carolinas, said Chase’s real estate team is searching for sites.

 

 

Edited February 7 by SydneyCarton

[Guest]

39 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

I’m not surprised about this.  If Chase can build a new $4b, 1,400’ HQ in NY, they can surely splurge for a new tower in Clt.

 

https://news.yahoo.com/chase-bank-details-plan-add-103000848.html

Chase Bank details plan to add branches, jobs in Charlotte, part of big US expansion

Chase Jordan

Wed, February 7, 2024 at 5:30 AM EST3 min read

 

•  

 

Chase Bank is planning to further compete with banking giants in Charlotte by adding more than 15 branches by the end of 2026 and hiring hundreds of people.

The New York-based financial institution announced a multibillion-sdollar expansion plan on Tuesday, which includes opening more than 500 branches, renovating 1,700 locations and hiring 3,500 people by 2027.

There are currently 19 locations in the Charlotte region. Justin Brovitz, regional director for the Carolinas, said Chase’s real estate team is searching for sites.

 

 

BANKTOWN BABY. JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!

Edit: Just now read it and it’s going to be around 100-200 retail jobs, nothing corporate. Don’t know how this would improve our chances at a tower…

Edited February 7 by MothBeast

[KJHburg]

Saw this in the Dallas Business Journal and while Dallas Ft Worth does indeed have more financial jobs than the Charlotte area they need to be watched as they have attracted big companies including some from the west coast.   We here in Charlotte need to continue to diversify our financial and banking jobs.  We are still the number 2 banking center with assets headquartered here but we need to attract other kinds of financial firms as well.   Obviously Dallas Ft Worth is the 4th largest metro area in the country with over 7.5 million people and growing fast. 

""In recent years, Dallas-Forth Worth has grown to become the second-largest hub for financial workers in the country. The moniker "Wall Street of the South" has been bandied about recently, although DFW actually surpassed the Los Angeles metro during the pandemic in December 2020 in that hierarchy. Dallas-Fort Worth had about 384,500 financial activities jobs as of November, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

New York still has more than double with 809,000-plus. But since the end of 2019, DFW has added 59,200 financial jobs. The growth has occurred at banks, wealth management firms, private equity shops and corporations, through both organic growth and relocation. Titans of finance such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. are building large campuses in North Texas that they plan to fill with thousands of employees, pointing toward future growth.   

Companies have flocked to the Metroplex for several reasons, including the surging population, a business-friendly environment in Texas and the availability — and cost — of labor. The average financial and investment analyst in DFW was making around $102,000 per year as of May 2022, almost 30% less than in New York, according to federal data.

"Right now the smart money is on Dallas, Texas — a land of genuine opportunity where attracting big business is frankly becoming business as usual," Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said at the groundbreaking of the Goldman Sachs campus last year.

Wealth management in particular has been a sweet spot for North Texas, as it feeds off the success of the vast sea of middle market companies for which DFW is known. How the fortunes created by those companies is nurtured will play a large role in this region's economic evolution, from startup funding to philanthropy.

Fisher Investments, a wealth advisor with $236 billion under management, last year moved its headquarters to Plano from Washington state after a court ruling in the latter upheld a capital gains tax on wealthy residents.

Naj Srinivas, a spokesman for Fisher, said in a statement the move has gone well for the company so far and expressed a positive outlook for 2024.

“We’re very pleased with our Texas headquarters move,” Srinivas said. “Texas is simply more business and employee friendly, which is why it continues to attract so many businesses, like ours. In 2023, our firm continued firing on all cylinders in terms of clients served and AUM growth globally. We expect the new bull market to continue in 2024 and deliver good-to-great returns for investors.”

For Wood and True North Advisors, the influx of firms means more competition for clients and assets. While Wood admitted the space has become more crowded, he said he welcomes the competition. Firms still need to differentiate themselves, he said, and True North has the benefit of having built up its reputation in DFW for almost a quarter of a century.

“As competition continues to come in, we've got to stay sharp and continue to improve and grow and build what we're doing,” Wood said.

Registered investment advisers, or RIAs, like True North have become a bigger part of the wealth management industry in recent years in Texas and abroad. The number of independent RIA firms has grown at a compound annual rate of 2.4% over the past decade, while the number of advisers at independent RIAs has grown 5.2% over the same period, according to Cerulli Associates, a wealth and asset management research consulting firm.

Other parts of the industry have stayed flat or declined in the same time, according to Cerulli. By 2027, Cerulli projects RIAs will control nearly one-third of intermediary asset market share.

That means big broker-dealer wirehouses, such as Morgan Stanley, UBS and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, still control the majority of assets and often have advantages in terms of scale and tech budgets. But "the flexibility and higher payout percentages of independence is appealing to many advisors," Andrew Blake, an associate director at Cerulli, said in a statement.

Carter Tolleson, CEO of Tolleson Wealth Management, a Dallas-based RIA with $8 billion in assets under management, also said he relishes the competition from bigger companies coming to Dallas. While a company like Goldman Sachs “will always have that mystique” around its brand, Tolleson believes his firm has built up a strong reputation since getting its start in 1997.

Tolleson said the key for his firm is to “stay in your lane” and focus on being a one-stop shop for ultra-high-net-worth clients. Tolleson Wealth Management has its own private bank, which is uncommon in the RIA world.

“We've kind of flipped the model on its head a little bit,” Tolleson said. “As opposed to being bankers that manage money, we're wealth managers that have banking as a service line. But that that's ended up being a really important piece of our business because it also allowed us to open a trust company.”""
https://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2024/02/08/wealth-management-growth-financial-jobs-boom.html

[Norm2]

Hopefully Charlotte can steal a little bit of Dallas' thunder, but those Texas cities have a lot of momentum that will not be slowing down any time soon

[SydneyCarton]

13 hours ago, Norm2 said:

Hopefully Charlotte can steal a little bit of Dallas' thunder, but those Texas cities have a lot of momentum that will not be slowing down any time soon

I don’t understand the appeal of Dallas, but it has clearly become the biggest jobs magnet.  It has stolen Atlanta’s thunder.  Frankly, with the advent of remote work, I wonder if the days of corporate relocations are over anyway.

Edited February 10 by SydneyCarton

[Norm2]

4 hours ago, SydneyCarton said:

I don’t understand the appeal of Dallas, but it has clearly become the biggest jobs magnet.  It has stolen Atlanta’s thunder.  Frankly, with the advent of remote work, I wonder if the days of corporate relocations are over anyway.

Corporate relocations might pick back up once the economy improves, but there may not be as many relocations as before the pandemic. A lot of companies are transitioning from remote to hybrid or in-office full time. UPS is mandating that all office employees go back to the office 5 days a week. 

[KJHburg]

this was approved by city council tonight the new Wells Fargo signage at 550 South Tryon tower aka DEC but a tower they have always owned.

It’s giving “tacky”: Mixed opinions erupt over Wells Fargo skyline sign before it even goes up - Axios Charlotte

my thoughts: they are the LARGEST financial employer in this city and their rivals all have their names on 600 plus towers themselves BOAT and of course Truist.    and the vote was unanimous. 

[KJHburg]

in other banking news Bank T, Truist is selling their rest of their insurance unit.  It would be great to have this 6th largest insurance broker headquartered in Charlotte with its own separate HQ building somewhere.

""Charlotte-based Truist Financial Corp. (NYSE: TFC) said today it is selling the remaining 80% stake in its legacy Truist Insurance Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of the bank and the sixth-largest insurance brokerage in the nation.

The deal is expected to close during the second quarter of this year. The unit is valued at $15.5 billion. Truist is selling the insurance unit to an investor group led by private equity firms Stone Point Capital and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. Mubadala Investment Co. and other co-investors are also participating in the investment, the bank said.

The transaction had been rumored for months. Greenwich, Connecticut-based Stone Point Capital and Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Investment Co. were among the investors to purchase a 20% minority stake in Truist's insurance business for $1.95 billion last year.""

Truist to sell insurance unit valued at $15B - Charlotte Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

[RANYC]

On 2/19/2024 at 8:46 PM, KJHburg said:

this was approved by city council tonight the new Wells Fargo signage at 550 South Tryon tower aka DEC but a tower they have always owned.

It’s giving “tacky”: Mixed opinions erupt over Wells Fargo skyline sign before it even goes up - Axios Charlotte

my thoughts: they are the LARGEST financial employer in this city and their rivals all have their names on 600 plus towers themselves BOAT and of course Truist.    and the vote was unanimous. 

To those who had issues with the Wells Fargo signage at 550 S Tryon, check out this bad boy I spotted on the way into Manhattan.  Doesn’t make Wells signage any less tacky perhaps, but branding impact through mid-rise or high-rise signage is everywhere at all levels of urban maturity and sophistication.  

[KJHburg]

quick job search for some of the major banks for jobs in Charlotte

Truist has over 900 jobs now most were crossposted in 3 or 4 places mainly Atlanta, Winston, Raleigh along with Charlotte.  

US Bank 122 jobs many cross-posted but 2nd highest after their HQ city of Minneapolis 

Vanguard with their upcoming beautiful new office complex has 51 jobs many crossposted with their HQ

Wells Fargo 191 jobs most cross-posted with their bigger city markets like NY, Dallas, etc 

BofA is harder to get a quick count.  

so Bank town is still hiring and most large financial companies cross-post in multiple cities to get wide exposure.