Commercial banking

Wilbur Jenkins is the Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer at WoodmenLife — an industry leader with more than $11 billion in assets — where he leads Core Operations, Human Resources, and Strategic Initiatives with a focus on driving digital transformation to enhance the customer experience. His career includes senior roles at Argo Group International Holdings and Hartford Financial Services Group. Jenkins is known for his ability to lead cross-functional teams across enterprise-wide functions to achieve strategic goals.

Gemma Ros is the chief technology officer at TheZebra.com, the company simplifying the insurance shopping experience. In this role, Gemma leads the engineering, DevOps, and data teams, driving innovation and operational excellence. She is an excellent source on technology innovation in the insurtech space, what it means to be an impactful and effective leader, her journey to the CTO role and more. 

Gemma is a senior technology executive and business strategist with more than 20 years of experience in financial services and product development. Gemma began her career as a developer at a bulge bracket investment bank, where she gained deep expertise in building robust, scalable, and low-latency trading and risk management systems in dynamic environments. After eight years on Wall Street, she co-founded a technology startup, then expanded her expertise to insurtech and private lending before joining TheZebra.com in 2022.

Throughout her career, Gemma has been recognized for delivering high-impact technology solutions, building and scaling high-performing teams, and attracting and retaining top engineering talent.

She holds a master's degree in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College. Outside of her professional experiences, Gemma enjoys spending time with her kids, reading, and adding to her ever-expanding Lego collection.

Brad LaPorte is chief marketing officer at Morphisec and a former Gartner analyst. He is a seasoned cybersecurity expert and former military officer specializing in cybersecurity and military intelligence for the U.S. military and allied forces.

Anurag Shah heads Newgen's Products & Solutions Division in the Americas, including the Caribbean, South, and Central American regions. He also leads GSI relations as well as consulting and pre-sales in the Americas. He has been with Newgen for over 22 years. In his previous role, he led and managed delivery and professional services for enterprise customers.

Mark Pinsky is president and founder of CDFI Friendly America. He previously served as president and CEO of the Opportunity Finance Network and Current.

Oswaldo Acosta is CEO of City First Enterprises, a Washington, D.C., community Development Financial Institution.

Mike joined Simply Business in April 2018 and is Vice President of Insurance Panel and Partnerships and a member of the US Executive Leadership Team.  In his role, Mike is responsible for driving product growth with new and existing panel insurance carriers as well as expanding Simply Business's distribution reach through strategic partners. Collaborating with insurance carriers, Mike's team helps bring new insurance products to market that benefit business owners while meeting small business customers where they are via distribution partnerships.
Mike brings 20 years of commercial property and casualty experience to Simply Business, having had previous underwriting and distribution roles at Liberty Mutual Insurance.  Mike earned his bachelor's degree in finance from Bentley University in 2003 and his CPCU designation in 2009. Mike resides in the Greater Boston area with his wife and two sons.

Subordination and a reserve account are among the protections on notes supported by subprime loans on primarily used vehicles.

While the shutdown has delayed the release of federally-compiled statistics, economists at Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group said state-level data suggested initial jobless claims increased last week.

A number of banks experienced major increases in 7(a) lending activity during SBA's recently completed fiscal year, as program-wide loan volume topped $37 billion for the first time.

Over the past two years, volume in the $30 trillion US government bond market was about 58% higher than average on the last trading day of the month, the New York Fed found.

Revenue from 1,449 restaurant locations in 26 states, secured notes from Cajun Global, which primarily, gets its cash flows from top-line royalty payments from the system's franchise locations.

Federal Reserve Gov. Michael Barr said in a speech Thursday that he fears the gradual pace of price increases from tariffs being passed on to consumers may prolong the one-time inflationary effect of the tariffs to the point where it affects consumers' inflation expectations.

Chana R. Schoenberger is the editor-in-chief of American Banker. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of Financial Planning after joining Arizent in 2020. 

In her prior role, she was the managing editor for U.S. wealth management at J.P. Morgan. Before that, she was a columnist and freelance journalist, and previously worked at Bloomberg News, Dow Jones/The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes. A graduate of Harvard College, she received her master's degree as part of Columbia Journalism School's Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economic and Business Journalism. She is now based in New York City after stints in Tokyo and Canada.

Follow her on X at @cschoenberger.

Holly Sraeel is Founder of The Most Powerful Women in Banking and SVP of Strategy and Content, American Banker Live Media, leading content creation and innovation for the events and live media portfolio and introducing new multimedia and invitation-only experiences for senior executives that drive critical conversations and action around corporate strategy, innovation and financial performance. She is part of the company's operational leadership team and is focused on developing cross-platform programming that creates higher levels of engagement for subscribers, community participants and partners across the company's brands, including American Banker, The Bond Buyer, National Mortgage News, Accounting Today, Digital Insurance, Financial Planning and Employee Benefits News.

Sraeel is an award-winning editorial director, media executive and content strategist with expertise in developing influential content, communities, and events for C-level executives in the banking and financial services, insurance, and technology industries. Prior to joining Arizent, she held several content leadership and strategist roles, including for B2B media consultancy New York Ventures, capital markets management consultancy Opimas, Oxford University-incubated startup Wise Responder, and as cofounder of Genesys Partners' Agility First Forum.

This new role marks a return to the company for Sraeel. In her previous 12-year run, she was a member of the executive team and was pivotal in driving new cross-platform editorial, events and business innovation as SVP of Brand Management; Group Editorial Director of Banking and Technology magazines; and Founder, President and Editorial Director of The Most Powerful Women in Banking,™ the company's first-ever, community-based media platform, now part of Arizent's flagship American Banker.

Sraeel is an early honors graduate of Marist College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and a concentration in journalism.

But the 12-month view is different, as a significant portion of those polled see more North American corporate defaults. Commercial real estate seems to have recovered some confidence.

Roughly 100,000 properties in the United States had a foreclosure filed in the third quarter this year, an increase on a quarterly and yearly basis, ATTOM said.

DB Master Finance has a high leverage level, but a high corporate profile and amortization triggers mitigate risks stemming from that.

Andrew Larsen is a Director at Simon-Kucher within the insurance practice, with expertise in growth strategy, operating model design, and digital transformation.
He has led large-scale initiatives across financial services, insurance, and brokerage, delivering measurable impact in revenue growth, cost optimization, and AI-driven innovation.
His experience spans advising Fortune 500 companies, private equity portfolio firms, and emerging tech players on go-to-market strategy, operating model redesign, and AI.