Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

The giant financial institution's performance during the first three months of 2023 is being closely watched by the wealth management industry.

The firm followed rival wirehouses that no longer share their exact number of brokers, which is a critical metric for industry recruiting trends.

CEO David Solomon sees potential for business in the wake of a merger involving two of its rivals for business among the ultrawealthy, he told analysts.

Although the bank's wealth businesses logged strong organic growth for the quarter, revenue fell and hiring languished after two strong quarters of headcount gains under then-president Andy Sieg's leadership.

Wealth management lifted the firm's bottom line, as the unit's revenues rose 11% over the past year and it hauled in assets across multiple channels.

The giant custodian's parent company, BNY Mellon, is working on how best to help it work together with its other businesses, CEO Robin Vince said.

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The regulator's latest staff bulletin also calls on planners at hybrid firms to always be clear about if they're wearing their broker or advisor hat.

Only Charles Schwab out of a dozen major wealth management firms answered a series of questions about their clients' increasingly important liquid assets.

The bank said the advisors and associates who left had managed under 20% of wealth management assets, as of the end of the first quarter.