BankTown Banking & Finance News

[KJHburg]

As the second largest banking center in the country what happens at our banks  affects the local real estate market.  Their real estate moves involve  100s of thousands of square feet most time.  Headquarters of Bank of America and soon Truist Bank  and the largest operation of Wells Fargo  in the country banking is in the Queen City's blood.  Not to mention US Bank, Ally (will they name Charlotte their HQ), financial firms like TIAA and Vanguard. 

New CEO named for Wells Fargo this morning not sure how this will affect Charlotte if any at all.  Will he move to San Fran, NY or come to Charlotte?  Regardless Charlotte is the biggest employment node for them and what happens to an employer that employs 26,000 people in this area is utmost important to all in the Charlotte area. 

https://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/wells-fargo-ceo-jamie-dimon

 

[CLT2014]

11 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

New CEO named for Wells Fargo this morning not sure how this will affect Charlotte if any at all.  Will he move to San Fran, NY or come to Charlotte?  

"Scharf will continue to be located in New York. He serves on the Board of Directors of Microsoft Corporation. Scharf is also a member of the Business Council, Chairman of the New York City Ballet and a member of the Board of Trustees for Johns Hopkins University."
https://newsroom.wf.com/press-release/corporate-and-financial/wells-fargo-names-charles-w-scharf-chief-executive-officer

Edited September 27, 2019 by CLT2014

[KJHburg]

Here is the Biz Journal story about the new Wells CEO

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2019/09/27/incoming-wells-fargo-ceo-i-certainly-didnt.html

It is interesting that he will remain in NYC. Does Wells use this opportunity to move HQ officially to Charlotte or a co-HQ in NYC who knows?   Charlotte is a sure lot closer to NYC than San Fran. 

In the meantime as reported Wells is looking for 2000 seats for people in Charlotte and my cousin reports at the CIC on Harris people are being squeezed in everywhere. 

[Matthew.Brendan]

Telling that Scharf is "a protege of Jaime Dimon".

If anyone else has been following the saga of WeWork lately, I recommend this article:

https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/wework-and-counterfeit-capitalism

Quote

Now, Neumann himself isn’t very important, foolish charlatans are common in society. The question is why he became so powerful despite being so obviously unfit for a role stewarding billions in capital and managing thousands of people. And that’s where we get to the real power centers behind this fiasco, the financiers who lent WeWork large sums of money. This includes Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan and Masayoshi Son of Softbank. 

Dimon’s role is prosaic; his bank essentially financed WeWork after Dimon was tricked by Neumann into thinking the real estate money losing enterprise represented the future. Dimon wanted JP Morgan serve as Neumann’s personal banker, to serve as the commercial banker to WeWork, to take the company public, and to offer credit services as well.

If you know Dimon’s actual reputation, him getting suckered isn’t surprising. From what I heard back in 2009, Dimon is a mediocrity who essentially got lucky his bank was too slow to get in on the subprime scam in 2006; he then used his bank’s incompetence at getting into the bubble as justification for how prudent he was. In this case, however, Dimon didn’t miss the fraud boat. JP Morgan managed to just make it into WeWork, the last round of the money losing fake tech bubble. Dimon will now portray himself as the adult cleaning up the mess, but of course, he’s more of an arsonist pretending to be a firefighter.

 

[Madison Parkitect]

As an aside, I never understood the fascination with WeWork. At first I thought they leased all their space from landlords and made their money via subscribing workers, which seemed like kind of a new business model. Then I realized that they were the landlords and they weren't doing anything new at all, they were just marketing it better. Then after reading about Neumann it became clear "Oh, it's a scam company being run by an idiot monster that people are just flinging cash at." WeWork is just an office space leasing company, that's it. The problem is they were being run like a company that was offering some new service to people. They marketed themselves like a disruptor and assumed they'd have huge profits one day, when they weren't disrupting anything at all. Even ride-sharing and scooter companies are at least offering a new service and they're still losing money.

[pgsinger]

1 hour ago, Matthew.Brendan said:

Now, Neumann himself isn’t very important, foolish charlatans are common in society. The question is why he became so powerful despite being so obviously unfit for a role stewarding billions in capital and managing thousands of people. And that’s where we get to the real power centers behind this fiasco, the financiers who lent WeWork large sums of money. This includes Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan and Masayoshi Son of Softbank. 

Dimon’s role is prosaic; his bank essentially financed WeWork after Dimon was tricked by Neumann into thinking the real estate money losing enterprise represented the future. Dimon wanted JP Morgan serve as Neumann’s personal banker, to serve as the commercial banker to WeWork, to take the company public, and to offer credit services as well.

If you know Dimon’s actual reputation, him getting suckered isn’t surprising. From what I heard back in 2009, Dimon is a mediocrity who essentially got lucky his bank was too slow to get in on the subprime scam in 2006; he then used his bank’s incompetence at getting into the bubble as justification for how prudent he was. In this case, however, Dimon didn’t miss the fraud boat. JP Morgan managed to just make it into WeWork, the last round of the money losing fake tech bubble. Dimon will now portray himself as the adult cleaning up the mess, but of course, he’s more of an arsonist pretending to be a firefighter.

As a second aside, most of this 2009(ish) stuff could be said about Stumpf and Wells Fargo.

[KJHburg]

as for the protégé of Jamie Dimon that does not mean the new Wells CEO would be so desperate to push an IPO for a company with governance issues and overspending like Mr Dimon did with WeWork.  I put the WeWork IPO disaster on him and the Japanese investor Softbank (and of course WeWork itself)    I am a WeWork customer and I have a lot to say about this believe me but this is not the first time I have heard "market share is more important than profits"  I heard that in the early 2000s when the Dot Com Bomb happened and many unprofitable companies went out of business.   Tell me any point in history of American businesses when a profit has not matter at some point.  $60M for Gulfstream jet bought last year?  Un believable......

Edited September 27, 2019 by KJHburg

[videtur quam contuor]

W-a-a-a-a-y off topic but...I believe Lyft and Uber might survive if they merge. The duplication of actions will have savings as a single company and then they can pay drivers more and still lose less money than they do today.

[KJHburg]

Wells new exec assures San Fran HQ will remain in San Fran despite being based in NYC.  from the San Fran Business Times

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2019/09/27/5-keytasks-facing-wells-fargo-s-new-ceo.html

they are saying in San Fran CEO needs to be there center of the company culture?

https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Wells-Fargo-s-new-CEO-will-run-the-SF-bank-from-14473535.php

Edited September 27, 2019 by KJHburg

[Jasons0013]

19 hours ago, KJHburg said:

In the meantime as reported Wells is looking for 2000 seats for people in Charlotte and my cousin reports at the CIC on Harris people are being squeezed in everywhere. 

They are going to have a lot of room there free up once the group Principal Financial bought leaves. Principal is looking for space in the University area last time I heard.

[KJHburg]

1 hour ago, Jasons0013 said:

They are going to have a lot of room there free up once the group Principal Financial bought leaves. Principal is looking for space in the University area last time I heard.

Refresh my memory what is Wells selling to Principal? 

[atlrvr]

The retirement plan administration business.

[urbanlover568]

Quote

 

Banks have announced nearly 60,000 job cuts this year, and German giant Commerzbank is teeing up the next round of layoffs.

 

Low interest rates, purge of equities, and blockchain is going to do a number to the banking workforce. 

 

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/bank-job-cuts-in-2019-commerzbank-readies-more-layoffs-2019-9-1028549352

[KJHburg]

This article is from the San Fran Business Times about Wells Fargo slashing jobs in the East Bay area and people there being offered jobs in places such as Charlotte.

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2019/10/18/wells-fargo-to-lay-off-hundreds-in-the-east-bay.html  

#Calexit 

[Phillydog]

Do you all think SF is gonna really miss Wells Fargo?  I think it's inevitable now that WF relocates HQ to the QC.  #WFHQQC LOL.

Edited October 19, 2019 by Phillydog

[Hornets]

I Don't know when it's gonna happen, but as I said before, I do believe WF relocation to Charlotte N.C. will happen

[A2.]

8 hours ago, Hornets said:

I Don't know when it's gonna happen, but as I said before, I do believe WF relocation to Charlotte N.C. will happen

Think of the money they would save on taxes alone! Not to mention the fact it takes a million bucks to live in a closet (so essentially their staff at the HQ  requires three times the income to live the way they would in Charlotte).  To be terribly honest, it’s almost against logic to stay. Especially if your a shareholder. San Fran isn’t NYC, so they can’t claim they need to be close to other Financial firms. 

Bring it back to the QC! 

A2

Edited October 19, 2019 by A2.

[U_R_]

1 hour ago, A2. said:

Think of the money they would save on taxes alone! Not to mention the fact it takes a million bucks to live in a closet (so essentially their staff at the HQ almost requires three times the income to live the way they would in Charlotte).  To be terribly honest, it’s almost against logic to stay. Especially if your a shareholder. San Fran isn’t NYC, so they can’t claim they need to be close to other Financial firms. 

Bring it back to the QC! 

A2

I've heard ATL has been looking for a new bank.

Edited October 19, 2019 by Ric0_0

[A2.]

20 minutes ago, Ric0_0 said:

I've heard ATL has been looking for a new bank.

Right!? 

Edited October 19, 2019 by A2.

[SydneyCarton]

If anything, I’d see Wells moving the top execs and the formal HQ to NY and increasing the masses dramatically in Charlotte. 

Anyway, the QC has a very bright future with Wells.

 

[TheOneRJ]

If Wells Fargo planned on relocating to Charlotte it would have already happened. 

[CLT_sc]

It makes sense is so many ways to move the HQ out of SFO to CLT.  But, common sense doesn’t always apply in business.  Regardless, Wells is very entrenched in CLT.  And, if the HQ moves here, all the better.  I do expect Truist to capture a lot of the banking headlines in CLT as they ramp up their HQ.  BofA and Wells will lose talent to Truist.

[Rufus]

What if WF split up? I doubt it would ever happen, but the thought popped in my head. They could split up and maybe Wachovia be reinstated. 

It's just a pie in the sky, but I wonder if divestiture is something that might be proposed. 

[urbanlover568]

On 10/19/2019 at 11:06 AM, A2. said:

Think of the money they would save on taxes alone! Not to mention the fact it takes a million bucks to live in a closet (so essentially their staff at the HQ  requires three times the income to live the way they would in Charlotte).  To be terribly honest, it’s almost against logic to stay. Especially if your a shareholder. San Fran isn’t NYC, so they can’t claim they need to be close to other Financial firms. 

Bring it back to the QC! 

A2

If it's about taxes, Austin and Nashville are the choices. The workforce there is booming also. More talent. 

 

[TheOneRJ]

3 hours ago, mpretori said:

If it's about taxes, Austin and Nashville are the choices. The workforce there is booming also. More talent. 

 

Austin and Nashville do not have more financial talent than Charlotte.