What Lordstown’s Meltdown Means for SPACs

PwC’s U.S. arm is founding the Trust Leadership Institute as part of a $300 million initiative to focus its business around the concept of “trust.” It is meant to teach clients how to handle issues such as transparency, ethics, data security, corporate governance, and politics and policy — without prescribing specific solutions. “Trust will define the next 10 years,” much as technology defined the past decade, Tim Ryan, PwC’s U.S. chairman and senior partner, told Michael.

• PwC’s U.S. arm also plans to commit $125 million to give 25,000 Black and Latino college students career coaching and mentoring, with a goal of hiring up to 10,000 of them at the firm itself.

• On a global basis, PwC will combine its accounting and tax services into a new division called — what else? — “trust solutions.”

It’s capitalizing on corporate America’s push to focus on more than profits. Ryan noted that the firm’s clients are increasingly open about feeling pressure to speak out on issues like the environment and social justice. Since many business leaders learn softer skills on the job, it leaves them in need of help to make decisions in a way that maximizes trust.

“If you can go into a restaurant in New York City, you can come into the office.”

— James Gorman, Morgan Stanley’s C.E.O., on his firm’s preference that employees return to the office by Labor Day. More broadly, Wall Street is grappling with remote work: Most Goldman Sachs employees in New York City were required to return to the office yesterday, while Citigroup is leaning toward a hybrid model.

Exclusive: Mexican fintech Credijusto is buying a bank

Credijusto, the Mexico-based fintech company, is acquiring the domestic bank Banco Finterra. The deal, which will create a company with a combined asset base of about $300 million, is the first time a Mexican fintech has acquired a bank in the country.

Buying a bank can be quicker than obtaining a fresh bank license, allowing a fintech to tap the lower cost of capital that banks enjoy. Similar deals elsewhere include LendingClub’s acquisition of Radius Bank last year and SoFi’s takeover of Golden Pacific Bancorp this year. John Mack, the former Morgan Stanley chief who invested in Credijusto, said that his advice in buying a bank was twofold: Be “pristine with regulations,” and impose “real discipline.”

Credijusto has the U.S. in its sights. The 2020 North America trade deal, combined with geopolitical tensions with China, has bolstered trade ties between the U.S. and Mexico. Credijusto, which caters to small businesses, is looking to take advantage with a new service financing invoices for the sale of Mexican products to U.S. buyers.

• The company may also open operations in the U.S. — initially as a non-bank player — and would consider buying a bank in the country, said David Poritz, one of Credijusto’s chief executives.