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☆ BlackRock is open to a major deal. Here's where it could look to expand as the banking crisis emboldens the world's largest money manager.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The banking crisis that unfolded last month has created opportunities for BlackRock. The potential for a "transformational" deal would expand the world's largest money manager. The banking crisis that unfolded last month with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has emboldened BlackRock, the world's largest money manager with some $9 trillion of assets. The Financial Times reported last December that BlackRock had "discussed whether to pursue a takeover of private markets manager Carlyle but decided against it," citing three people with knowledge of those discussions. "We are asking ourselves to reimagine BlackRock," Fink said on Friday.

☆ What JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon, BlackRock's Larry Fink, and other Wall Street CEOs are saying about the impact of the banking crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Carter Johnson | Rebecca Ungarino | Hayley Cuccinello | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

JPMorgan, BlackRock, Wells Fargo, and Citi reported earnings Friday. Top execs described their response to the banking crisis — and future opportunities. The message was clear, wrote Wells Fargo bank analyst Mike Mayo in a note to clients Friday. Quarterly earnings calls held with research analysts marked an opportunity for Wall Street's biggest executives to face questions about the impact of the March banking crisis on their firms' bottom lines. Here's what the leaders of JPMorgan, BlackRock, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup had to say about SVB.

☆ Is Jamie Dimon the most powerful person in finance?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Insider's Carter Johnson has a story on one executive whose profile continues to rise: Jamie Dimon. Carter's story got me thinking: Who's the most powerful person in finance? Warren Buffett: Before you jump down my throat, realize this is a list of the most powerful people in finance not on Wall Street. Place your vote here — or name someone else — for who you think is the most powerful person in finance. The bank was hit with a nearly $100 million fine for letting a foreign bank make prohibited transactions, The Wall Street Journal reports.

☆ Meet the new co-heads of Merrill Lynch as Andy Sieg exits to jump-start Citi's wealth business
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Hayley Cuccinello | Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Merrill Lynch head Andy Sieg is leaving to lead rival Citi's wealth management business. Sieg is leaving for rival bank Citi, where he faces a big challenge when he starts in September: improving Citi's wealth business, which has lagged behind competitors like Merrill and Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. New battles await both Sieg at Citi, where he will be head of Citi Global Wealth, and his successors at Merrill. The move was made after the wealth business had missed revenue targets, the Wall Street Journal reported. Citi CEO Jane Fraser described the wealth management unit's performance as "disappointing" on a call to discuss earnings in January.

☆ Wall Street wants to lend to Hollywood, and that could be bad news for the rest of us
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Today, we've got stories on an upheaval within BlackRock's communications department, a debate over the merits of the man bun on Wall Street, and why I'm not intimidated by Gen Z anymore. Insider's Rebecca Ungarino and Reed Alexander have a story on private lenders looking to make investments in media and entertainment. Hollywood has long represented an interesting investment opportunity for Wall Street, but lending to the industry is an interesting twist. As Reed pointed out in a follow-up story, Wall Street is keen to apply artificial-intelligence tools to identify projects worth greenlighting. And here's more on why Wall Street is so high on the entertainment industry leveraging AI.

☆ BlackRock Communications Specialists Exit As Fink Scrutiny Mounts
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

At least nine people have left or are transitioning out of BlackRock's communications group. The corporate communications team has some 90 employees globally, up from 48 in 2019, a BlackRock spokesperson said. "We're fortunate the BlackRock communications team includes some of the most talented professionals in the industry and that we have continued to attract top talent as the team has grown in recent years," Badenhausen said in a statement to Insider. Jonathan Posen, a veteran speechwriter who worked as former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's chief writer on the financial crisis and other economic matters, joined BlackRock's communications group in 2013. The criticism reached new heights in 2022 as Republican state officials coordinated attacks on Fink and BlackRock and some pulled their investments.

☆ The future of ESG is expanding. Here’s how 2 experts define ESG investing and why it matters
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Elizabeth Wood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Experts share how ESG investors can understand and grow with emerging opportunities. Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) investing is adapting to consumer behavior. However, ESG investing has recently come under review for greenwashing or other hidden tradeoffs. Leaders in the field are working to better define and understand what ESG investing is and the good it can do for companies and beyond. During the session "Navigating ESG Investing Challenges" Rebecca Ungarino, senior finance reporter, spoke with Shah and Nikita Singhal, coHead of sustainable investment and ESG at Lazard Asset Management.

☆ Why big investors like Carlyle and Ares are zeroing in on Hollywood and sports deals — and driving private credit in media to new highs
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | Reed Alexander | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

And Ares raised $3.7 billion for a fund last fall geared specifically toward sports, media, and entertainment investments across private debt and private equity. Unlike private equity investing, where managers take stakes in companies or buy them, private credit investors lend to businesses and make money on interest payments. (Private investment firm KKR's media, entertainment, and sports portfolio includes Insider parent company Axel Springer.) Carlyle's $146 billion credit arm has also provided capital to Clair, a media tech company that specializes in live production services and audio products. The strategists said driving that uptick are private credit defaults that include so-called softer forms of default, like breaching a loan's terms and conditions, along with private credit portfolio companies having generally lower ratings and less diversified businesses.

☆ Swiss banking, known for its secrecy, gets put in the spotlight
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Credit Suisse stock plummeted on Wednesday during the bank's largest one-day selloff to date. UBS begrudgingly agreeing to acquire rival Credit Suisse has put Swiss banking on center stage. Credit Suisse has stumbled through its fair share of crises in recent years. The sale of Credit Suisse for $3.2 billion begs the question: What the hell are neobanks worth? If a long-established, albeit beleaguered, investment bank was sold at such a discount, then what could a digital-only consumer bank really go for?

☆ Credit Suisse's investment bankers are so concerned about cuts, employees are being told to look for new jobs. 'They encouraged it.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Carter Johnson | Casey Sullivan | Dakin Campbell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

The fate of Credit Suisse's investment bank hangs in the balance after being sold to UBS. The investment bank's planned spinoff has been put on hold and bankers are bracing for job cuts. People said they expect Credit Suisse's planned spinoff of its investment banking operations, announced last year, to be scuttled. Over at 11 Madison Ave., where Credit Suisse's NY operations are headquartered, emotions were running hot on Monday. Now, the proposed CS First Boston deal hangs in the balance, with both industry experts and Credit Suisse employees uncertain whether it will go through.

☆ UBS' dramatic takeover of Credit Suisse was the deal neither bank wanted. Here's some of the passive-aggressive digs from both sides.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Matt Turner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

UBS acquired Credit Suisse in a rescue takeover over the weekend. But Credit Suisse didn't want to be rescued, and UBS didn't want to have to be the rescuer. For example, the first official word of the deal came from the Swiss National Bank, which announced: "UBS today announced the takeover of Credit Suisse." Next, Credit Suisse announced: "Credit Suisse and UBS to Merge." In 2019, after UBS announced Khan's hire, the chief operating officer at Credit Suisse ordered a colleague to spy on him.

☆ Top UBS executives defend their 'emergency rescue' of Credit Suisse. Here's what comes next.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

UBS sought to reassure investors that the Credit Suisse deal wouldn't disrupt long-term strategy. UBS agreed to acquire Credit Suisse on Sunday in a deal arranged by the Swiss government. Credit Suisse has faced crisis after crisis in recent years, from Archegos to a spying scandal. "These events could alter the course of not only European banking but also the wealth management industry more generally," Georgiou said. "It's an outcome that we may not have hoped for," Hamers said of the Credit Suisse deal.

"Not only are these big banks not sitting around and waiting for the phone to ring, they are also being proactive." Amid the nation's most troubling turmoil in banking since the global financial crisis nearly 15 years ago, the big banks are flexing their collective muscle. The 2008 financial crisis humbled the banking behemoths; the 2023 crisis of regional banks has now only cemented their power. For an increasingly stretched financial system, the big banks provide a needed stability. The flight to safety that is benefiting the big banks will have a cost, however.

Employees have been working around the clock to onboard as many startups as possible in the wake of the implosion of Silicon Valley Bank. Silicon Valley Bank, which had more than $175 billion in deposits and served nearly half of US VC-backed startups, was taken over by US regulators on March 10. "That said, I am worried that this bias towards a Big Four bank is a double-edged sword," Shekar added. "SVB did not think like a big bank. They could understand your operating plan when a big bank would balk at it," Ashley Tyrner, CEO and founder of FarmBoxRX, told Insider.

☆ Larry Fink's annual letter to BlackRock investors was about getting back to basics
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink GettyImages / Eugene Gologursky1. If you're looking for controversy in Larry Fink's annual open letter to investors, better luck next year. Despite this year's letter clocking in at roughly 9,000 words — have you thought about getting an editor, Larry? — Fink largely avoided discussing a favorite, albeit controversial, topic of his: ESG investing. Click here to read more about Larry Fink's latest annual letter that largely avoided hot political topics.

☆ Larry Fink, thrust into political crosshairs, dials back ESG talk in his annual letter
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink published his widely read annual letter to investors on Wednesday. In a shift, Fink kept his discussion of ESG investing to a minimum after a year of backlash. Fink focused on macroeconomic concerns, notably inflation, and the wider energy transition. It is clear that Fink's stance on ESG investing has not changed. In his letter on Wednesday, Fink talked at length about the transition to a low-carbon economy and BlackRock's role in it.

☆ What we lend in the shadows
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

"What We Do in the Shadows." New companies, especially ones that don't make any money are "pre-revenue," as VCs like to say, aren't easy to lend to. — there are also risks to letting investment firms lend billions of dollars without much oversight. Private-credit firms are looking to fill the lending gap left by Silicon Valley Bank's downfall. Inside Silicon Valley Bank's $70 billion loan portfolio that's now up for grabs.

☆ How shadow bankers are already emerging as winners in the SVB collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | Dakin Campbell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

But the momentum already behind the secretive private credit space has picked up — fast. He was witnessing a new willingness from borrowers to turn first to private credit, a market that has grown yet generally remains more opaque than its public-market counterparts. "Borrowers used to look at these banks and say, 'Look, the banks, they've been around forever. The private lenders say that privacy is all part of the pitch. Money managers smell opportunityThe momentum already behind the secretive private credit space has gained steam as the SVB collapse pushes companies to consider alternate sources of debt and, on the other side, private credit managers seek out new targets.

☆ How SVB employees are coping after being ordered to leave the office, from polishing their resumes to hitting the bar: 'We're pretty much in the dark'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Emmalyse Brownstein | Rebecca Ungarino | Carter Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

It read: "Operations of the SVB Securities broker dealer are distinct from the receivership of SVB Financial." The SVB Securities employee called the whirlwind leading up to SVB's meltdown as "scary, scary stuff." Kevin Heal, senior analyst at Argus Research, said he sees both SVB Securities and SVB Private being sold. SVB bought the healthcare investment bank Leerink Partners in 2018, renaming it SVB Leerink and then SVB Securities. PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty ImagesHeal thinks the investment banking operations could be purchased by a smaller investment banking firm that doesn't have tech or healthcare prowess, like US Bancorp or PNC.

☆ Bridgewater's new executive team is already making big changes. But was it all part of Ray Dalio's master plan?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

On tap, we've got stories on the top VCs in Texas, more headaches for Blackstone's BREIT, and why boomers stink. Maybe it's just the fear of facing your own mortality and realizing that life, in fact, will go on without you. As Rebecca Ungarino reports, the world's largest hedge fund is making a slew of new changes less than six months after billionaire founder Ray Dalio stepped aside. Bridgewater, which was founded in 1975 from Dalio's two-bedroom apartment, is arguably just as well known for its culture as its size. Edited by Jeffrey Cane (tweet @jeffrey_cane) in New York and Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) and Nathan Rennolds (tweet @ncrennolds) in London.

☆ Job cuts, a sole CEO, and AI bets: How Bridgewater is shaking itself up after the Ray Dalio era
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The firm's CEO, Nir Bar Dea, said in a memo that it would lay off employees and restructure. Bar Dea had been a rising star at Bridgewater, which has transitioned leadership in recent years. Former co-CEO Mark Bertolini is also stepping out of the role and returning to Bridgewater's board as an independent director, leaving Bar Dea as sole CEO. "Over time, we expect this platform to produce the next round of growth in the business," Bar Dea wrote. 'Finding a home'As far as high finance executives go, Bar Dea has an unexpected background.

☆ The 22 executives running BlackRock's pivotal $318 billion alternatives business, from private-equity power players to decarbonization dealmakers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

BlackRock's $318 billion alternative-investments business is key to the money manager's future. The money manager has been on a mission to grow its $318 billion alternatives business. The leadership team steering the alternatives business has changed recently. Insider has pinpointed the key people responsible for the alternatives business today. It was updated in February 2023 to reflect new reporting and changes to the leadership of BlackRock Alternatives.

☆ BlackRock just sold its robo-advisor to the wealth firm Ritholtz Wealth Management
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Ritholtz Wealth Management is acquiring FutureAdvisor from BlackRock, Ritholtz confirmed. FutureAdvisor notified retail clients on Monday that Ritholtz would acquire the company. Ritholtz Wealth Management is acquiring the robo-advisory product FutureAdvisor from asset management giant BlackRock, a spokesperson for Ritholtz confirmed on Tuesday. FutureAdvisor notified retail clients on Monday that Ritholtz would acquire the company, according to a copy of an email to clients that Insider viewed. A Ritholtz spokesperson said this is the firm's first acquisition, and that terms of the deal are not being disclosed.

☆ Meet 12 tech execs helping top private-equity firms like Apollo and Blackstone use AI and alternative-data to cut deals
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Bianca Chan | Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The people responsible for private-equity firms' internal tech have never been more important. Alt-data and AI capabilities are emerging as ways for firms to make deals and win new business. But that's starting to change as some of the largest PE firms take the plunge to invest in their own internal tech. Private equity has largely taken a wait-and-see approach to investing and building internal tech operations. Here is a list of top tech execs to know in the private equity industry.

☆ Private equity is finally stepping up its tech game. Here's who is leading the charge.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

What's the first thing that pops into your head when you hear the term "private equity?" PE firms do plenty of things quite well (and they are certainly compensated for their work), but their internal tech has never been a top priority. What I find most fascinating about the so-called "digitization" of PE isn't so much the actual tech but the culture. Click here to learn more about the 12 executives helping PE firms get up to speed on cutting-edge tech they can use to source and close deals. Silicon Valley Bank, which is the go-to bank for tech startups, is under pressure amid the market downturn, the Financial Times reported.

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