American Banker Announces 2013 Best In Banking Awards

New York, NY (PRWEB) December 10, 2013

The editors of American Banker have named John Stumpf, chairman and chief executive officer of Wells Fargo, the 2013 Banker of the Year. American Banker -- the leading resources for banking professionals – also named three Community Bankers of the Year: Johnny Allison, founder and chairman of Home BancShares; Simone Lagomarsino, president and CEO of Heritage Oaks Bank; and Joseph DePaolo, president and CEO of Signature Bank.

American Banker also recognized retiring president and CEO of BOK Financial, Stanley Lybarger with a Lifetime Achievement award and named the team behind Citigroup’s Money2 for Health as one of the top financial services Innovators of the Year.

American Banker has been recognizing industry leaders with its Banker of the Year designations and Best in Banking programs since 1991. While each of the individuals selected this year stood out for different reasons, each has been transforming the industry, a line of business, or the company he or she leads during a period in which the financial services business itself is undergoing dramatic transformation.

“The executives we honor with Best in Banking are recognized not only for their impressive results but for their specific leadership skills and business strategies, which offer best practices worth sharing with the entire industry,” said Heather Landy, editor in chief of American Banker Magazine.

Banker of the Year
John Stumpf heads Wells Fargo, a multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in San Francisco, CA. Wells Fargo announced two dividend increases in 2013 and kept its status as one of only two banks with the minimum 1 percent capital buffer required of institutions identified by regulators as being systemically important banks globally. Requirements for rivals Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase range from 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent.

Innovators of the Year
Leading the Top Innovators of 2013 is the team Money2 For Health, a new health care payments platform. The platform was developed by Citigroup’s enterprise payments division, which is led globally by executive Deborah McWhinney. Money2 For Health, accessible online or via mobile phone, provides a place for consumers to reconcile medical bills, review benefit forms from insurers, go over past bills, sign up for alerts, and initiate payments—with the privacy and security safeguards expected from a system that contains personal health and financial information.    It is currently in pilot mode with Aetna as the charter health insurance partner, with plans for a broader roll-out in 2014.

Community Bankers of the Year
American Banker recognized three executives as Community Bankers of the Year.

•     Home Bancshares founder and Chairman Johnny Allison was honored for his strategic approach in pursuing acquisitions. Under his leadership, Home Bancshares has scooped up seven failed and two distressed banks in Florida. Combined with the 2013 acquisition of Liberty Bancshares, those deals have helped Home double in size to $7.2 billion of assets.
•     New York-based Signature Bank, founded in 2001 by its President and CEO Joseph DePaolo, has increased profit for 16 straight quarters—including a 26 percent year-over-year increase in third-quarter net income—and is the only bank among the nation’s top 100 that has shown earnings growth in each of the last five years.
•     Heritage Oaks’ President and CEO Simone Lagomarsino was selected for her speedy turnaround of the $1.1 billion-asset bank in Paso Robles, CA. Since arriving at the company (IN TK), she has swiftly executed on a plan to replace problem loans with good earning assets, which drastically improved the bank’s risk profile, alleviated regulators’ concerns and paved the way for an acquisition that would make the bank the second largest in the San Luis Obispo area.

Lifetime Achievement Award
This year’s Lifetime Achievement recipient is Stanley Lybarger, the outgoing president and CEO of BOK Financial in Tulsa, Okla. He was honored for his role in establishing BOK’s Bank of Oklahoma and Tulsa as a regional financial force during his long tenure at the $27 billion-asset company (including 17 years as its CEO.) Lybarger leaves a legacy not only in terms of his strong leadership at BOK, but for the company’s impact on the Tulsa community at large.

About the Awards
Banker of the Year Awards honorees have been selected by the editors of American Banker in an independent and journalistic process since 1991. A special report, "Best in Banking 2013," showcasing the year's most important stories and trends, has been published online at http://www.AmericanBanker.com/best-in-banking and in the December issue of American Banker Magazine.

About American Banker
American Banker is the banking industry's most powerful information resource providing news, analysis, and opinion on the business of banking. For more than 175 years, American Banker has covered the people, trends, regulations and technologies driving the industry, helping readers keep pace with changes and opportunities in the marketplace. Today, content is delivered throughout the day, online and via mobile devices; in print via the daily American Banker newspaper and the monthly American Banker Magazine; and through online and live conferences and seminars.

About SourceMedia
SourceMedia, an Investcorp company, is a business to business media and marketing solutions company serving the financial industry and the related fields of professional services and technology. SourceMedia offers its clients and subscribers professional information services, industry-standard research, data applications, in-depth seminars and conferences, and specialized marketing services

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