Why Banks These Days Are So Excited About Being Boring
A year after SVB’s failure, regional lenders have embraced stodginess as a virtue.
In March, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. introduced TV ads and plastered signs across its branches arguing that it’s “brilliantly boring.” On an April conference call, Fifth Third Bancorp Chief Executive Officer Tim Spence boasted that the lender’s results were “boring.” And on April 25, Frank Namdar, chief credit officer of Columbia Banking System Inc., described his property loan portfolio as “really quite boring, which somebody like me loves to see.”
A year ago, as regional lenders found themselves thrust into the public spotlight, banking was anything but tedious. For an industry underpinned by trust—the belief that customers’ deposits will be safe—the rapid implosion of Silicon Valley Bank and two other large regional institutions offered a heart-stopping glimpse of a less-than-boring financial sector.