Truist Financial is overhauling its digital innovation operations.  

Bank Automation News has learned that a key bank C-level innovation officer left Truist last week, and the bank shut its Foundry unit, which led the FI’s skunkworks ventures. 

Following Chief Executive Bill Rogers’ discussion of unexpected merger costs during the bank’s July Q2 2023 earnings, the bank is making deep cuts to its innovation unit, a source told Bank Automation News. 

The merger between SunTrust and BB&T to form Truist, completed in 2019, “in this environment was more expensive than we anticipated,” Rogers said during the Q2 earnings call. With those added costs in mind, hiring freezes were mentioned at the nation’s seventh-largest banks, as well as a priority to “change the fundamental structure of the company from an expense standpoint,” the CEO added. 

Specifically, recent changes at Truist include: 

• Ken Meyer, Truist’s chief information and experience officer, announced via LinkedIn on Monday that he is leaving the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank. “It’s been an emotional week as I made the decision last Monday to move on from Truist after almost 10 years,” Meyer told his LinkedIn network.  
• Lindsay Holden, former head of Truist Foundry, is also no longer working at the bank as the Foundry is being folded into a broader innovation initiative. The Truist Foundry, launched in October 2022, produced financial literacy game Truist Long Game in May.  
• On Monday, the bank announced that four of its board members are retiring as they near the mandatory retirement age, and an additional four are leaving the board for other reasons. 
• Last month, Truist started a layoff initiative to help the bank execute its plan to save $750 million in costs in the coming months.  
• A Truist spokesperson previously told BAN: “We regularly assess streamlining opportunities for our organization and make adjustments to meet client needs effectively and efficiently.” 

Market reaction

Amid the changes at the bank, Truist’s stock is down 37% year over year to $27.39, and down 2% since market open today. Truist has a market capitalization of $38 billion. 

During the bank’s second-quarter earnings, Wells Fargo Securities analyst Mike Mayo pointed out Truist’s sharp drop in earnings per share, noting, “The shareholders, I think I can safely say, are not happy.” 

Truist declined BAN’s request for comment.