Amerant Bancorp Chair and CEO Jerry Plush stepped down Wednesday, effective immediately, and the bank appointed COO Carlos Iafigliola as interim chief executive, according to a Thursday news release.
The executive transition comes about a week after the bank’s third-quarter earnings call in which Plush noted an increase in nonperforming asset levels that he said “must be immediately addressed.”
Amerant’s nonperforming assets increased to $140 million, or 1.3% of total assets, in the third quarter, from $98 million in the second quarter. The bank had $10.4 billion in assets in the third quarter.
Plush and the bank “mutually agreed for him to step down,” the Coral Gables, Florida-based lender said this week, and Amerant will conduct an executive search for his replacement that will include Iafigliola and external candidates.
Odilon Almeida Jr., who was previously lead independent director, was appointed board chair.
“After careful consideration, the Board and Jerry mutually determined that now is the right time to make this leadership transition,” Almeida said in a prepared statement. “The foundation of the Bank’s multiyear transformation has been established and the Board expects that this change will enable Amerant to advance its growth strategy while improving operational efficiency, supported by a robust risk management culture.”
The increase in problem commercial real estate and commercial loans “put pressure on management credibility,” Piper Sandler analyst Stephen Scouten said in an Oct. 28 note seen by American Banker.
Amerant is placing a “heightened emphasis … on reducing nonperforming assets. There is no question this is job one,” Plush said during last week’s earnings call. “We are realigning even more select personnel in order to drive resolution as prudently and expeditiously as possible and aligning more personnel to proactively address upcoming covenant testing and financial statement updates.”
Iafigliola, Plush’s interim replacement, has spent more than two decades at Amerant, starting in the bank’s treasury department. Most recently, he served as senior executive vice president and chief operating officer – a role in which he helped streamline operations and lead the bank’s core conversion, as well as the sale of its Houston franchise, Amerant said.
Iafigliola started his career as a market risk analyst at Mercantil Servicios Financieros, which was Amerant’s holding company prior to its 2018 initial public offering.
Amerant’s board is “confident that Carlos will drive the execution of our strategy, with a particular focus on enhancing risk management and improving the cost structure of the Bank,” Almeida said.
Plush did not leave Amerant due to issues related to policies or any ethical or compliance concern, the bank said.
In an investor note seen Thursday by American Banker, Scouten called Plush’s departure “a necessary and logical step forward for Amerant.”
Plush’s transformation plans for the company have “clearly not gone as well as hoped,” Scouten said.
