TD Bank, PNC Financial focus on succession planning in 2024

Amid regulatory, economic and political uncertainty, many banks used 2024 as a time to restructure their leadership teams.

While banks were lasered in on handling liquidity and interest-rate risks last year after a flurry of failures put the industry on edge, many have re-focused on succession planning and strategy shifts this year, said Rob O’Halloran, a managing partner at recruiting firm BDS Yarmouth & Choate.

The last 12 months have seen a number of financial institutions make major changes to their executive teams after a relatively slow 2023, when executive compensation also declined at most banks. O’Halloran said regulators had been telling financial institutions that succession planning was a top priority, but the crisis in March 2023 put some of that strategic work on pause.

“I think [after the crisis] the regulators were maybe taking it easier on banks … and maybe not pushing them as much for strategic planning and succession planning-type improvements,” O’Halloran said. “As this year has progressed … and the world hasn’t ended, it seems like bank activity has picked up.”

Additionally, some banks have had to shuffle their leadership amid legal woes, regulatory challenges, earnings struggles or strategy shifts. 

Here are some of the biggest executive bank moves of 2024.