Reuters makes changes to Americas finance team

Neal Templin, finance editor in the Americas for Reuters, sent out the following announcement on Monday:

Dear colleagues,

After a review of the Americas finance team, we’ve decided to make some changes to amplify coverage of major institutions and sector-wide themes. In doing so, we hope to give reporters a platform to break more news on the biggest banks, brokerages, insurers and investment firms, and foster collaboration across the team to produce more deeply reported stories that merit INSIGHT, FOCUS, ANALYSIS and SPECIAL REPORT tags.

Here are some of the changes being made:

Anna Irrera, our fintech reporter, will be appointed team leader for financial companies coverage. In this role, Anna will work with reporters covering banks, brokerages, insurers, exchanges and money managers to write deeply reported, global stories about how technology is changing the industry. Anna regularly sets the agenda with her stories about fintech startups, cryptocurrency and the way traditional firms are trying to embrace technology. She has had numerous EXCLUSIVEs and SPECIAL REPORTs since joining Reuters in 2016, and we look forward to seeing the great work she will do with her colleagues in the team leader role.

David Henry will move to a newly created position as a reporter covering the financial services industry at large, with a special focus on risk. In this role, David will be working with colleagues in the Americas and abroad to spot stories where banks or shadow banks are entering new businesses or developing new products that pose risks to investors, customers, markets or the industry itself. David joined Reuters in 2011 as a banking reporter covering JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup. During that time, he has broken news on topics ranging from Jamie Dimon’s likely successor, to Citigroup’s struggles in retail banking, to the industry’s foray into digital payments. We know he will build on those successes in his new role.

Elizabeth Dilts will move into a role as a bank reporter, taking over coverage of JPMorgan Chase & Co, as well as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. She will primarily focus on stories that center on the Wall Street side of the business, including investment banking, trading and wealth management. Liz joined the finance team in 2014, and has primarily covered the brokerage industry during that time. Her SPECIAL REPORTs on firms that employ a large number of brokers with spotty records, a biotech company that owned its own brokerage, and crypto analysts offering paid ratings have set the agenda for readers who follow the brokerage industry and financial regulation. We look forward to all the news she will break about big banks.

Imani Moise will add coverage of Citigroup to her existing role as a banking reporter covering Bank of America and Wells Fargo. In her role, Imani will primarily focus on the consumer side of banking, as well as the fallout from Wells Fargo’s sales scandal. Imani joined Reuters earlier this year from the Wall Street Journal to take on a beat that has a steady drumroll of breaking news. Her collaborations with colleagues in Washington, New York and London have led to a scoop about disgruntled dealmakers at BofA and several insightful stories about Wells Fargo grappling with its sales scandal. We know she will continue to do great work with Citigroup added to her responsibilities.

Suzanne Barlyn, our intrepid insurance reporter, will begin handling big stories on the financial enforcement beat. Suzanne will maintain coverage of the insurance sector, but leverage her contacts and knowledge in the regulatory and legal world to pursue stories outside that patch as well. A trained lawyer, Suzanne joined Reuters in 2011 to cover FINRA, the industry-funded brokerage watchdog, and in 2015 began covering financial enforcement cases, particularly those stemming from the New York Department of Financial Services. Suzanne has broken news about a breadth of topics – from UBS advisers pushing risky Puerto Rico bonds on investors to Wells Fargo’s phony accounts scandal to Delaware becoming a hub for corporate secrecy. We are excited to see the hard-hitting scoops and deeply reported features Suzanne will write on both insurance and enforcement.

Please join us in congratulating everybody on their new roles.