BankTown Banking & Finance News

[kermit]

On 5/28/2022 at 1:53 PM, JerseyBoy said:

That's entirely untrue. Richmond is no Charlotte, but it's got a good, "cool" vibe with pretty well-known arts and foodie scenes.

I agree. While downtown Richmond is pretty blah, the surrounding neighborhoods are great. Restaurants are very good, architecture is good, decent walkability in core, there is a riverfront (of sorts), VCU adds a bunch of vitality adjacent to downtown, and there are lots of interesting things to do. My about-to-graduate college daughter is seriously considering moving to Richmond, but Charlotte is not on her radar because a) “its boring” (her words) and b) its expensive.

Edited May 31, 2022 by kermit

[Desert Power]

On 5/25/2022 at 10:44 PM, KJHburg said:

From the Mayor of Richmond VA's  strategic plan for econ development there:

3.5.3. FINANCIAL SERVICES. Re-establish Richmond as one of the nation’s leading centers of financial
services, with a focus on “fintech” (financial technologies).
 Set a goal for Richmond to rival Charlotte within a 5–10-year time horizon to once again vie for the title
of “banking capital of the South.”
 Initiate conversations with Bank of America to encourage its expansion projects associated with
technology and AI to take place in Richmond, not only at its Henrico campus.
 Target financial services firms in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia seeking a lower-cost location
along theEastern seaboard.
 Partner with VCU and local tech companies to launch new initiatives in AI, blockchain, and cyber
securitythatservethefinancialservicesindustry.

My thoughts:  we have too much talent, too many companies but we always need to continue to attract financial and fintech firms and don't let anyone get an edge on what we have. 

 

Charlotte is mentioned all over this report by the way.

https://www.rva.gov/sites/default/files/2022-05/Richmond SPEED - 051822 - Clean Final For Introduction.pdf

Lol, not a chance of that one.

[KJHburg]

FNB buys $1 Billion asset Greenville NC bank.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fnb-corporation-strengthens-north-carolina-presence-with-pending-acquisition-of-ub-bancorp-301559018.html

[KJHburg]

I know we have mentioned this before but I still think the Wells Fargo HQ could move here ( and here being Las Colinas outside Dallas)  of course this could be office consolidation as Dallas Fort Worth is 4th largest metro in the country at 7.6 M and is a huge Wells market.  But one does have wonder with its central location, huge airport 2-3 miles away from this site and others like Charles Schwab who have moved to the Metroplex could their HQ move here?     Honestly if the HQ of Wells moves out of San Fran (which it should for a lot of reasons)  Dallas is probably Charlotte's strongest competition.  Could be a thought not to move to where they have a major hub like Charlotte, Minneapolis, or NYC.  Dallas could be the "neutral" ground.  I still want this to come to Charlotte but you can not overlook the appeal of Dallas metroplex. 

From the Charlotte Biz Journal:

""A key piece of a major mixed-use development in Texas long rumored as a potential home for Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) is moving forward, stirring up speculation about the potential for a headquarters relocation. That's according to our sister publication, the Dallas Business Journal, which reports developers there are seeking to rezone a 16-acre site as part of the larger NorthShore project in Irving, Texas.  Sources have told DBJ that the bank has zeroed in on that particular site for a build-to-suit office development that would consolidate thousands of jobs in North Texas. Wells Fargo would function as an anchor within a dense business district at NorthShore, surrounded by other notable companies, with space to accommodate at least 2,000 employees and as many as 4,000, according to those source.  Some have concluded that an office development of this size could result in a headquarters relocation, DBJ reports. The bank, however, has remained consistently tight-lipped even as speculation about such a move has swirled for years. A confidential economic development effort, dubbed "Project Falcon," in the Dallas area has fueled such chatter, although Charlotte — home to the bank's largest employment base — has also been considered a prime target over the years.

A spokesperson for the San Francisco-based institution has once again stated it has "no plans" to move its headquarters.  But DBJ real estate editor Anna Butler notes North Texas is no stranger to companies that have slowly built up a presence in the area before quietly shifting their headquarters address to the region. She points specifically to Charles Schwab and McKesson, both of which moved there from San Francisco. And as Mark Calvey with the San Francisco Business Times, another CBJ sister publication, has previously reported, Wells Fargo has few top executives left in the city that has been its hometown since being founded in 1852.""

I was in Las Colinas 2 years ago and I would described it as a higher density Ballantyne with DART light rail to downtown and to DFW airport which is just a few miles away.  It is quite the corporate powerhouse. 

Here is the site across the lake from the famous Las Colinas Mustangs

https://kdc.com/our-work/north-shore-las-colinas-urban-center

https://lascolinas.org/   Las Colinas is a 12.000 acre master planned community.  It has 25 Million square feet of office space and thousands of residents. 

[Blue_Devil]

17 hours ago, KJHburg said:

I know we have mentioned this before but I still think the Wells Fargo HQ could move here ( and here being Las Colinas outside Dallas)  of course this could be office consolidation as Dallas Fort Worth is 4th largest metro in the country at 7.6 M and is a huge Wells market.  But one does have wonder with its central location, huge airport 2-3 miles away from this site and others like Charles Schwab who have moved to the Metroplex could their HQ move here?     Honestly if the HQ of Wells moves out of San Fran (which it should for a lot of reasons)  Dallas is probably Charlotte's strongest competition.  Could be a thought not to move to where they have a major hub like Charlotte, Minneapolis, or NYC.  Dallas could be the "neutral" ground.  I still want this to come to Charlotte but you can not overlook the appeal of Dallas metroplex. 

From the Charlotte Biz Journal:

""A key piece of a major mixed-use development in Texas long rumored as a potential home for Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) is moving forward, stirring up speculation about the potential for a headquarters relocation. That's according to our sister publication, the Dallas Business Journal, which reports developers there are seeking to rezone a 16-acre site as part of the larger NorthShore project in Irving, Texas.  Sources have told DBJ that the bank has zeroed in on that particular site for a build-to-suit office development that would consolidate thousands of jobs in North Texas. Wells Fargo would function as an anchor within a dense business district at NorthShore, surrounded by other notable companies, with space to accommodate at least 2,000 employees and as many as 4,000, according to those source.  Some have concluded that an office development of this size could result in a headquarters relocation, DBJ reports. The bank, however, has remained consistently tight-lipped even as speculation about such a move has swirled for years. A confidential economic development effort, dubbed "Project Falcon," in the Dallas area has fueled such chatter, although Charlotte — home to the bank's largest employment base — has also been considered a prime target over the years.

A spokesperson for the San Francisco-based institution has once again stated it has "no plans" to move its headquarters.  But DBJ real estate editor Anna Butler notes North Texas is no stranger to companies that have slowly built up a presence in the area before quietly shifting their headquarters address to the region. She points specifically to Charles Schwab and McKesson, both of which moved there from San Francisco. And as Mark Calvey with the San Francisco Business Times, another CBJ sister publication, has previously reported, Wells Fargo has few top executives left in the city that has been its hometown since being founded in 1852.""

I was in Las Colinas 2 years ago and I would described it as a higher density Ballantyne with DART light rail to downtown and to DFW airport which is just a few miles away.  It is quite the corporate powerhouse. 

Here is the site across the lake from the famous Las Colinas Mustangs

https://kdc.com/our-work/north-shore-las-colinas-urban-center

https://lascolinas.org/   Las Colinas is a 12.000 acre master planned community.  It has 25 Million square feet of office space and thousands of residents. 

I mean it’s possible, but none of the C-Suite is in Dallas. I could see them moving all corporate functions in SF to Dallas, but the HQ to NYC.

to put this in perspective, uptown Charlotte alone has like 15,000 wells employees and Charlotte has close to 27000 all together

 

[Hornets]

3 hours ago, Blue_Devil said:

I mean it’s possible, but none of the C-Suite is in Dallas. I could see them moving all corporate functions in SF to Dallas, but the HQ to NYC.

to put this in perspective, uptown Charlotte alone has like 15,000 wells employees and Charlotte has close to 27000 all together

 

With the majority of Employees located in CLT, why not just move here!?

[Zeitgeist_4131]

1 hour ago, Hornets said:

With the majority of Employees located in CLT, why not just move here!?

Texas apparently is very aggressive in incentives and low in taxes. The HQ could be in TX with C-suite being in NYC. Lord knows, most everyone of importance who’s been hired in the last couple of years has been located there. 

[DonkeyKong]

Wells will not be hq’d in Texas.  Nyc, clt, or sfc yes. Dfw no.

[turbocraig]

1 hour ago, DonkeyKong said:

Wells will not be hq’d in Texas.  Nyc, clt, or sfc yes. Dfw no.

Maybe they’ll go to Richmond. 

[JRCLT]

Maybe they’ll go to Richmond. 

Talk about NEUTRAL ground.

[davidclt]

On 9/27/2019 at 8:45 AM, KJHburg said:

As the second largest banking center in the country

Listening to a piece from The Economist today, analyzing where the center of financial supremacy in Asia will be ("financial hub"). The contenders are Hong Kong (currently the top in Asia), Shanghai and Singapore (spoiler #1, not a clear winner each has their positives and negatives)

This led me to seek out the rankings to find out where our fair city stood. Surely the second largest banking center (in the United States) would land us somewhere in their report: The Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI 31)

Spoiler #2, the North American (and Caribbean) rankings are as follows: New York (1), Los Angeles (5), San Francisco (7), Chicago (13), Boston (14), Washington, DC (15), Toronto (22), Montreal (29), Vancouver (33), Calgary (47), Mexico City (52), Atlanta (63 - New this year), Cayman Islands (76), San Diego (83), British Virgin Islands (92), Bahamas (95), Bermuda (96), Barbados (113) . . . I will note, our own fair city doesn't even merit a mention or a footnote.

Minneapolis / St. Paul and Turks and Caicos make their list of "Associate Centres" which are "centres that have yet to achieve the number of assessments required to be listed in the main GFCI index. Seven centres fall into this ‘associate centres’ category, with Minneapolis/St Paul and Turks & Caicos closest to receiving the 150 assessments required to be listed in the index." We're not even on the radar.

Edited June 8, 2022 by davidclt

[RANYC]

21 minutes ago, davidclt said:

Listening to a piece from The Economist today, analyzing where the center of financial supremacy in Asia will be ("financial hub"). The contenders are Hong Kong (currently the top in Asia), Shanghai and Singapore (spoiler #1, not a clear winner each has their positives and negatives)

This led me to seek out the rankings to find out where our fair city stood. Surely the second largest banking center (in the United States) would land us somewhere in their report: The Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI 31)

Spoiler #2, the North American (and Caribbean) rankings are as follows: New York (1), Los Angeles (5), San Francisco (7), Chicago (13), Boston (14), Washington, DC (15), Toronto (22), Montreal (29), Vancouver (33), Mexico City (6), Atlanta (63 - New this year), Cayman Islands (76), San Diego (83), British Virgin Islands (92), Bahamas (95), Bermuda (96), Barbados (113) . . . I will note, our own fair city doesn't even merit a mention or a footnote.

Minneapolis / St. Paul and Turks and Caicos make their list of "Associate Centres" which are "centres that have yet to achieve the number of assessments required to be listed in the main GFCI index. Seven centres fall into this ‘associate centres’ category, with Minneapolis/St Paul and Turks & Caicos closest to receiving the 150 assessments required to be listed in the index." We're not even on the radar.

It's just one publication's point of view, but even I'll admit that I never thought of Charlotte as a "second largest banking center in the US" before moving here.  It's not a mantle the city brandishes all that effectively.  Housing lots of risk management, compliance, and IT doesn't really register as globally-influential banking, for most.

Instead, Globally-influential banking centers need to be centers of securities trading, investment management for ultra high net worth individuals, as well as corporate/investment banking, pretty much everything having to do with institutional capital formation.  Having a district HQ of the central bank can't hurt either.  Charlotte doesn't really have any of that, from what I can tell.

Open to an alternative viewpoint, however.

Edited June 8, 2022 by RANYC

[atlrvr]

Read the GFCI report on methodology (and deciding what cities to include), and it's certainly a way of conducting a survey.  In the end, the idea that Charlotte isn't a top 139 global financial center is equally absurd of Charlotte being 2nd largest banking center in the US (a methodology that I've touched on and described what it captures and why it's flawed but at least purely quantitative.

My personal view in "ranking" would be, what cities would impact the flow of capital the most if they overnight disappeared.  Charlotte isn't number 2 on that list of US cities, but it's definitely top 10.

The ATLRVR US Financial Index might look something like:

1 - New York

2 - Chicago

3 - Washington DC

4- Los Angeles

5 - San Francisco 

6 - Boston

7 - Charlotte

8 - Miami

9 - Philadelphia

10 - Atlanta, Seattle, Dallas or Minneapolis 

[SydneycartonII]

Charlotte is pretty impressive as a financial center, especially for its size.  

NYC is in a league of its own world-wide.  The NYSE and NASDAQ absolutely crush the markets of every other city.   Also, NY has no competition for hedge funds, etc.  

The unlimited Wall St money is fueling a boom of hyper-expensive condos and supertall office buildings.  Yet another was announced today with a hedge fund anchor tenant and with expected rents of $300/sf + on some floors.

Anyway, Charlotte is pretty dominant too, which is reflected by all of the money that it’s flush with these days.  Every time I visit, I see new huge houses in Meyers Park and South Park and really exotic cars everywhere.

 

Edited June 8, 2022 by SydneycartonII

[Reverie39]

What was the methodology used for the #2 ranking for Charlotte anyway? I've heard Charlotte called that for quite some time now.

[SydneycartonII]

4 minutes ago, Reverie39 said:

What was the methodology used for the #2 ranking for Charlotte anyway? I've heard Charlotte called that for quite some time now.

I believe that  it’s based on the assets of banks headquartered in a city.

Edited June 9, 2022 by SydneycartonII

[RANYC]

2 hours ago, atlrvr said:

Read the GFCI report on methodology (and deciding what cities to include), and it's certainly a way of conducting a survey.  In the end, the idea that Charlotte isn't a top 139 global financial center is equally absurd of Charlotte being 2nd largest banking center in the US (a methodology that I've touched on and described what it captures and why it's flawed but at least purely quantitative.

My personal view in "ranking" would be, what cities would impact the flow of capital the most if they overnight disappeared.  Charlotte isn't number 2 on that list of US cities, but it's definitely top 10.

The ATLRVR US Financial Index might look something like:

1 - New York

2 - Chicago

3 - Washington DC

4- Los Angeles

5 - San Francisco 

6 - Boston

7 - Charlotte

8 - Miami

9 - Philadelphia

10 - Atlanta, Seattle, Dallas or Minneapolis 

Philly is home to the nation's oldest stock exchange, which is currently a subsidiary of NASDAQ and specializes in options and ETFs.

Miami is a capital formation gateway to Latam.

I'd put those cities higher in your order, although I'm more convinced about Miami than Philly.  Philly area is also home to one of the largest and most sophisticated global quant firms, market makers, and liquidity providers in the country, if not world.

Can I ask why you'd rank Atlanta below Charlotte?

Edited June 9, 2022 by RANYC

[15895]

14 minutes ago, RANYC said:

Philly is home to the nation's oldest stock exchange, which is currently a subsidiary of NASDAQ and specializes in options and ETFs.

Miami is a capital formation gateway to Latam.

I'd put those cities higher in your order, although I'm more convinced about Miami than Philly.  Philly area is also home to one of the largest and most sophisticated global quant firms, market makers, and liquidity providers in the country, if not world.

Can I ask why you'd rank Atlanta below Charlotte?

I always seen Atlanta ahead of Charlotte as a financial center. I think miami and Philadelphia too. 

21 minutes ago, SydneycartonII said:

I believe that  it’s based on the assets of banks headquartered in a city.

Correct. So if BofA moved their HQ to NY but kept or even expanded their presence in Charlotte, Charlottes status would be decimated as a banking hub. It would probably go from $2.8 Trillion to $600 Billion in assets.

If Wells Fargo moved to Charlotte, Charlotte would be close to $4 Trillion in assets. 
 

im sure someone could fact check but. Based off of memory. 

Edited June 9, 2022 by AirNostrumMAD

[JRCLT]

Correct. So if BofA moved their HQ to NY but kept or even expanded their presence in Charlotte, Charlottes status would be decimated as a banking hub. It would probably go from $2.8 Trillion to $600 Billion in assets.
If Wells Fargo moved to Charlotte, Charlotte would be close to $4 Trillion in assets. 
 
im sure someone could fact check but. Based off of memory. 

Just about that and would probably be over 4. That would also mean though that if Wells Fargo left San Francisco it would also decimate it’s assets as well…

[SydneycartonII]

3 minutes ago, JeanClt said:

Just about that and would probably be over 4. That would also mean though that if Wells Fargo left San Francisco it would also decimate it’s assets as well…

I think that SF’s status as a very significant financial center is based mostly on its massive VC role with respect to all the start-ups.  It probably has a lot of hedge funds too.

[JRCLT]

I think that SF’s status as a very significant financial center is based mostly on its massive VC role with respect to all the start-ups.  It probably has a lot of hedge funds too.

It made it on that global list so I sure hope it does.

[RANYC]

43 minutes ago, SydneycartonII said:

I think that SF’s status as a very significant financial center is based mostly on its massive VC role with respect to all the start-ups.  It probably has a lot of hedge funds too.

Yes, San Fran has VCs, other alternative investment firms like Hedge funds, and large pools of ultra high net worth money.

[atlrvr]

Here's the metrics I'd measure.  City rank for each of the following:

Overall Financial Presence and Sophistication

Number of FIRE employees

Avg Wage of area FIRE employees

Number of HQ of Fortune 500 firms in Financial Services industry

 

Banking (Spread Lending) Activity

Assets of bank HQ in the city

Local deposits

 

Capital Markets Activity

Number of active Bloomberg users

Number of Partners based in city of AM Law 100 firms in Capital Markets practice

Debt and Equity issuance industry league tables aggregated based on where industry head is based (would be somewhat hard to determine)

 

International Finance

Volume of international bank transfers (not sure if this is public)

 

Fintech

Number of Fintech unicorns founded in the metro

 

Those I think are decent proxy metrics measuring all aspects of financial activity.  My off the top of my head rankings above I think aligns with those metrics, but obviously it would be a substantial project to compile all that.

 

 

[15895]

2 hours ago, JeanClt said:

Just about that and would probably be over 4. That would also mean though that if Wells Fargo left San Francisco it would also decimate it’s assets as well…

Yeah, looking at the largest banks in 2022, looks like BofA has $2.52 Trillion, Wells has $1.78 Trillion and Truist is $528.5 Billion. So well over $4 Trillion. 

Imagine a world where Wells, BofA, US Bank, Truist & Ally had their HQ in CLT. That would look nice on paper. Add 5/3 Bank and TD Bank. PNC. That isn’t so far fetched and could be reality.

Edited June 9, 2022 by AirNostrumMAD

[SydneycartonII]

It’s ridiculous that Goldman might build in Dallas.  They should focus on the QC.  They already have a big operation in SLC, which they should move here too.  Charlotte has a much better QoL than Dallas or SLC.

 

 

 

Edited June 10, 2022 by SydneycartonII