Fifth Third Chief Legal Officer Out
July 25 2016 - 6:10PM
Dow Jones News
Fifth Third Bancorp fired its general counsel late last week,
people familiar with the matter said.
It isn't yet known who will replace Heather Russell Koenig, who
was chief legal officer and corporate secretary for the
Cincinnati-based bank. A spokesman for Fifth Third confirmed Monday
that Ms. Russell Koenig is no longer with the bank.
In a statement, the bank said: "A personal matter has been
brought to our attention that Fifth Third believes represents a
conflict of interest. To resolve this, we have determined that the
best course of action was a separation. Heather is a very qualified
lawyer, and this matter has nothing to do with any of the legal
work done by Heather during her tenure at Fifth Third."
Ms. Russell Koenig wasn't immediately available to comment. She
has served as the top lawyer at Fifth Third since late September
2015, following work at Bank of New York Mellon as chief regulatory
counsel and head of public policy and regulatory affairs. Earlier,
she worked at Bank of America Corp. and law firm Skadden, Arps,
Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.
Fifth Third reports second-quarter earnings on July 28. The bank
has dealt with a string of legal issues in recent years and tried
to put them in the past by entering into government settlements to
resolve the cases.
In September 2015 the bank settled with the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau and the Justice Department to resolve allegations
of discriminatory auto-loan pricing, paying $18 million to minority
auto borrowers. At the time, the CFPB also settled with the bank
over allegedly illegal credit-card practices, and Fifth Third paid
$3 million to credit-card customers.
The following month, Fifth Third settled with the Manhattan U.S.
Attorney for $85 million over alleged failures to self-report
defective mortgage loans to the Federal Housing Administration.
Those settlements contributed to a recent downgrade to the
bank's Community Reinvestment Act rating. This is a key
fair-lending evaluation that weighs on a bank's ability to pursue
mergers. "Fifth Third Bank is fully committed to meeting the needs
of all of the communities it serves," the bank said in a statement
at the time.
Write to Emily Glazer at emily.glazer@wsj.com and Rachel Louise
Ensign at rachel.ensign@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 25, 2016 17:55 ET (21:55 GMT)
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