Truist CEO sees ‘intensifying’ crisis, bank doubles pandemic donations to $50 million
Truist is doubling its planned charitable contribution towards coronavirus relief as its CEO sees the economic and health crises “intensifying.”
The bank, the Charlotte-based product of the merger of BB&T and SunTrust, is now putting $50 million toward COVID-19 relief efforts, up from an earlier commitment of $25 million.
CEO Kelly King said the donation was motivated by the widening depth and breadth of the crisis. “As the crisis continued to develop, we started focusing on the forgotten people in society that might not otherwise get picked up in the normal processes, the normal organizations,” King said in an interview.
The bank will donate $9 million to bring technology to communities in need, $10 million to small businesses and community development financial institutions and $6 million to nonprofits where located near Truist employees.
Of the technology donation, $1.5 million will go to the Community Education Alliance to help provide internet access in East Spencer, Broward County, Fla., and Philadelphia’s Belmont neighborhood, according to a press release.
Bank benefits
To help its workers in the pandemic, all Truist employees making under $100,000 were awarded a $1,200 pre-tax bonus in March, as well as extra paid leave and other benefits.
Other area banks, including Bank of America and Wells Fargo, have given similar benefits to employees in addition to large charitable donations.
King, who was CEO of BB&T from 2009 until the 2019 merger, sees vast uncertainty in the outlook for the economy.
“We won’t really know for another 90 days what exactly is the depth of the pain, the depth of the damage to the small businesses, and how many of them will be able to come back,” King said.
If effective treatments and vaccines materialize, then he could see the economy start to recover, although he said the speed of that recovery currently can’t be known. For the time being, “this is just a really, really tough situation,” he said.
This story was originally published May 20, 2020 at 7:30 AM.