Truist sells $7.7B in LightStream loans and replaces consumer banking chief

Check your statements if you deal with Truist, the $554 billion-asset bank based in Charlotte, North Carolina. CEO Mike Lyons is shaking up the entire executive team and selling off major loan portfolios to boost profits. Dontá Wilson, the chief consumer and small business banking officer, is leaving the bank. Wilson was the last remaining manager from the 2019 SunTrust and BB&T merger that created Truist. Shimna Sameer, a former Bank of America executive, will take over consumer banking, while Jeff Warner from PNC joins as chief small business banking officer, according to Yahoo Finance. At the same time, Truist signed an agreement to sell $7.7 billion of unsecured personal loans from its LightStream platform to the global investment firm Carlyle, generating $7.7 billion in expected net proceeds. That comes right after Truist sold $5.5 billion in auto loans last month. Lyons said the bank spread its capital too thin across standalone national businesses like LightStream and marine lending instead of focusing on core deposits and local branches. "We have operated too many nationally focused, standalone, single-product businesses," Lyons told analysts. The bank plans to put that money back into local branches, hire more salespeople, and grow small business lending. For your business, a leaner bank refocuses on local relationship banking instead of scattered national products. Sometimes a new boss has to drop the extra baggage before the trucks can actually move.