Dive Brief:

• Wayne Peacock, CEO of San Antonio-based USAA, plans to retire in 2025, the company said Monday. He’ll leave his post in the first half of next year, once a new CEO is chosen.
• Peacock has spent about 36 years at the insurance and financial services company that caters to military members and their families, including almost five as CEO.
• USAA’s board is evaluating a list of internal and external candidates, and Peacock “will stay onboard to ensure a smooth transition,” the company’s board chair, Jim Zortman, said in the release.

Dive Insight:

Peacock, who’s been CEO since early 2020, was USAA’s first chief executive without a military background. Prior to that, Peacock served as president of USAA’s property and casualty insurance group. 

His compensation soared by about 69% last year: Peacock made at least $8.1 million in 2023, compared to his 2022 compensation of $4.8 million, according to the San Antonio Report. 

USAA, which has about 13.5 million members and 37,000 employees globally, had about $212 billion in assets as of the end of 2023. 

The company has encountered regulatory and legal headaches in recent years. In 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency fined USAA Federal Savings Bank $85 million over a series of “unsafe or unsound banking practices” in its compliance risk management and information security programs. 

In 2022, the bank was hit with a $140 million penalty from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the OCC for failing to maintain sufficient anti-money laundering safeguards. Later that year, USAA’s banking division reportedly cut jobs.

Most recently, USAA this month agreed to pay about $64.2 million to settle a three-year class-action lawsuit that alleged USAA’s banks overcharged service members and veterans on interest rates and fees, and gave them products they hadn’t requested.

The company announced other executive moves last month. CFO Jeff Wallace will fill the company’s vacant chief audit executive role, USAA said, and Brett Seybold, senior vice president and senior financial officer for USAA’s property and casualty business, will become CFO. Also last month, the company appointed a new chief human resources officer, Tami Cabaniss.