Inside Citi's exec shakeup — Chime's latest round — Buy now, pay later's future

Hiya.

Last week it was a new chief executive at a major Wall Street bank. Now a possible bank mega-merger is on the radar.

UBS Group and Credit Suisse Group AG are reportedly exploring the idea of merging, as first reported by Inside Paradeplatz.

UBS Chairman Axel Weber, in particular, is reportedly the one leading the potential deal, the story states, with a possible agreement as soon as early next 2021.

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Inside Citi's executive shakeup

The big news of last week was the announcement that Citi CEO Michael Corbat would retire in February 2021, handing the reins to Jane Fraser, the bank's president.

Dakin Campbell has the inside story on the lead up to the announcement, specifically the pressure Corbat faced from regulators about getting Citi's risk, compliance, and technology systems under control.

Dakin, as always, was super sourced up on this, chatting with seven insiders about how the entire thing shook out.

Click here to read the full story.

US neobank Chime could be set to more than double its valuation to as much as $15 billion in just 9 months with a major new funding round

When it comes to investing in fintechs, the rich keep getting richer. Callum Burroughs and I have a scoop on digital bank Chime closing in on raising a mega round that could value the company as high as $15 billion, more than double the price tag it nabbed just nine months ago. Click here for the full story.

Inside the buy now, pay later explosion: here's why 2020's red-hot financing trend is attracting millions of users and being embraced by everyone from PayPal to Goldman Sachs

Buy now, pay later has taken the payments world by storm this year. Shannen Balogh mapped out all the big news that's happened over the past six months, along with looking at what the red-hot space can expect next. Check out the story here.

Bank of America has been nabbing thousands of patents — far outpacing rivals. 2 execs lay out why the firm has embraced that strategy as the best way to drive tech innovation.

It's not as exciting or sexy as an innovation center or a tech hub, but patents have proved to be a successful way to foster change at Bank of America. I spoke to two executives who laid out the strategy for me.

Citi is cutting its office footprint in costly locations to help offset spending on risk technology after the bank's 'unacceptable' Revlon blunder

Mark Mason, Citi's CFO, spoke about investments the bank is accelerating in the wake of the $900 million wire it erroneously sent. Reed Alexander covered Mason's comments, including where the executive said the bank will look to recognize savings.

Read the memo Citi CEO Mike Corbat sent staff quoting race car driver Mario Andretti to get employees to take risk and controls more seriously

Rounding out our Citi coverage for the day, read the memo obtained by Dakin Campbell that was sent last month by Citi CEO Michael Corbat to employees about the importance of risk controls. Click here to read the full note.

Odd lots:

Astronomers found a gas in Venus' clouds that could signal alien life (Insider)

At JPMorgan, Productivity Falls for Staff Working at Home (Bloomberg)

Steve Cohen finalizes record deal to purchase Mets (NY Post)