Longtime CFO, key communicator with the Street leaving Truist

The departure of its CFO means Truist Financial Corp. will need to replace an executive who often took a front seat during earnings calls, investor meetings and other presentations.

Truist said May 20 that Daryl Bible plans to retire as CFO, a position he held for some 14 years. Bible joined BB&T in 2008 and played an integral role in speaking with the investor community about the company's transformative merger of equals with SunTrust that created Truist. The MOE was announced in February 2019, and it was Bible who presented at a March 2019 investor conference in what was BB&T's first public appearance after the deal was announced, according to a March 2019 report from Raymond James analyst Michael Rose.

During the transformative BB&T and SunTrust MOE, Bible was "a key interface with investors," Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Christopher Marinac wrote in a May 23 note.

Bible was "instrumental in the successful growth" of BB&T and the integration of the MOE, and "is well regarded in the investment and banking industry," Stephens analyst Terry McEvoy wrote in a May 20 report.

Despite Bible's role with investors, the Street took the announcement in stride, with Truist's stock closing down just 0.95% on the day of the announcement, mostly in line with the 0.45% decline in the S&P U.S. BMI Banks Index on the same day. Equity analysts did not show much reaction to the departure either.

The Street reacts

When BB&T and SunTrust struck their blockbuster MOE in 2019, executives likely planned to pass the baton once integration was complete, Janney's Marinac said in an interview.

"It's more just about natural progression from one leadership team to the bench, and there is a deep bench on both sides," he said. "That's what investors should feel good about as much as it might be a surprise at the moment."

Marinac said he was not surprised by the announcement and that retiring shortly after successful integration was likely part of Bible's game plan since the announcement of the merger.

The Bible news comes less than one year after former CEO Kelly King retired in September 2021 giving way to Bill Rogers Jr., who took over as executive chairman, president and CEO as part of a planned succession that was agreed upon when BB&T and SunTrust struck the merger.

Stephens' McEvoy said Bible's retirement "isn't particularly surprising to us given his 14-year career at the bank and the retirement of legacy BB&T CEO Kelly King last year," he wrote in a May 20 note.

On the other hand, Barclays analyst Jason Goldberg believed Bible would remain in his role as CFO for many more years despite being the longest-tenured CFO in his team's coverage area, Goldberg wrote in a May 23 report. The analyst also pointed out that there was no quote from Bible in the press release, whereas the press releases for CFO retirement announcements at peers like Wells Fargo & Co. and The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. did include such quotes.

Shortly after the announcement, Bible shared a message on LinkedIn saying the decision came with "mixed emotions."

Goldberg also noted that Bible's upcoming departure marks the fourth former BB&T executive to announce they are leaving in the past nine months, along with "several changes with its finance function of late."

Marinac attributed the turnover to the natural attrition that happens after a large merger of equals and the pandemic, which likely "forwarded" some of the changes.

"You went through a very challenging and complex merger, then you went through a pandemic. If you are [on] the management team, you might be ready to do something else in your life, which could just as much be a personal decision as a professional one," he said.

Searching for a successor

Bible agreed to stay in his role as CFO until the naming and transition of a successor. The absence of a named successor in the press release is likely signaling to the market that "there's not an automatic person that was in the wings" and that the company is going to go through a process to find Bible's replacement, Marinac said.

He expects the search for Truist's next CFO to span over the next two or three quarters, with the transition taking place prior to year-end.

While the company will likely look both internally and externally for Bible's successor, Marinac believes an internal hire is a more likely scenario.

"Having somebody internal is a much better opportunity because that person would know the inner workings of the company. It's a complex company, just by size and by the fact that you did this big merger," he said. "To bring in somebody from the outside in, to me, is a different risk than just promoting someone who is just not known to the Street."