Gainey Business Bank in Scottsdale, Ariz., has its new CEO. The $27 million-asset bank said in a press release that Rob Schwister had also become president. Schwister recently served as director of banking programs at Equipment Leasing Services. Before that, he was Arizona market president for Alerus Financial. “Gainey Business Bank could not be happier with the addition of Rob to lead our bank,” Jim Unruh, the bank’s chairman, said

Fifth Third Bancorp in Cincinnati agreed to pay $8 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle claims that employees used unapproved channels for business communications. The $213 billion-asset company warned earlier this year that its investment advisory and broker-dealer units were cooperating with an SEC probe into its compliance with “certain record-keeping requirements for business-related electronic communications on unapproved channels.” Fifth Third, in its quarterly filing, said “other

Associated Banc-Corp in Green Bay, Wis., will report a large fourth-quarter loss after restructuring its balance sheet and pursuing a series of expense cuts. The $42 billion-asset company said in a press release that it will record a $157 million after-tax loss in the fourth quarter. The bank will pay a one-time charge of $5 million largely tied to severance payments. Associated laid off about 3% of its work force

City National Bank in Los Angeles will soon have a new CEO. The $96 billion-asset unit of Royal Bank of Canada said in a press release that Howard Hammond will succeed Kelly Coffey, who to transition to a newly created role as CEO of City National's entertainment unit. The moves will occur on Nov. 27. Hammond, who will join City National's board, recently served as head of consumer banking at Fifth

A group in Jersey City, N.J., is looking to form a bank. Organizers of Chroma Community Bank applied with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Nov. 8 for deposit insurance. The application wasn’t immediately available. A public notice tied to the application listed nine organizers: Mona Abraham, Stephen Duess, Michael Fox-Rabinovitz, Stanley Gorodesky, Val Katayev, William Liatsis, Steven Mendel, Jennie Rubinshteyn and Janine Yorio. Gorodesky is president of Chroma Consulting,

Flagstar Bank in Hicksville, N.Y., has a new president for its private bank. Flagstar, a unit of the $111 billion-asset New York Community Bancorp, said in a press release that Jason Birnbaum had also become an executive vice president. He is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of all private client banking teams. Birnbaum succeeded Eric Howell, who is moving to a non-executive advisory role. Birnbaum joined Flagstar earlier this year

Pacific Coast Bankers’ Bancshares in Walnut Creek, Calif., appointed a former regulator to its board. The $1.4 billion-asset company said in a press release that Kathy Moe Lonowski had become a director. She recently retired as San Francisco regional director at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. "Kathy brings with her a deep understanding of regulatory issues, which will benefit us immensely as we expand our product lines,” Curt Hecker, Pacific

Citigroup will pay $25.9 million to address claims by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that the New York company intentionally and illegally discriminated against Armenian-American credit card applicants. The CFPB alleged that the $1.7 trillion-asset Citi, between 2015 through 2021, singled those applicants out based on their surnames. Citi supervisors allegedly conspired to hide the discrimination by instructing employees not to discuss the practices in writing or on recorded phone