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Trump has chosen a banking executive, Frank Bisignano, to be the head of the Social Security Administration. Bisignano has worked in top Wall Street banks for many years and has a track record of supporting Republican politicians through political donations.
Authored by Minho Kim
Updating from the city
Stay updated on the most recent developments regarding Trump’s transition process and selections for his staff.
On Wednesday night, President-elect Trump revealed his selection of Frank Bisignano, the chairman of Fiserv, a major payment processing company, as the new commissioner of the Social Security Administration. This federal agency has over 1,200 field offices and nearly 60,000 employees.
The president-elect praised Frank as a skilled business leader who has successfully turned around big companies in the past. He will have the important task of fulfilling the Agency’s promises to the American people.
In his late 20s, Mr. Bisignano achieved a highly desirable position in the New York finance industry as a senior vice president at Shearson Lehman Brothers. Following the bank’s collapse in 2008 and the subsequent global recession, he spent nearly five years there before moving on to other prominent Wall Street institutions such as Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase & Company.
In 2017, Mr. Bisignano was ranked as the second highest-paid CEO in the United States. He was one of the rare few who earned over $100 million that year, and his compensation was over 2,000 times higher than the average salary of employees at First Data Corporation, the company he worked for before it merged with Fiserv.
Mr. Bisignano has a track record of making political donations, primarily to Republican candidates. According to federal campaign finance records, his wife, Tracy Bisignano, contributed almost $1 million to Mr. Trump’s campaign in October. However, in November 2023, he also donated $15,000 to Chris Christie’s presidential campaign. Christie, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, initially ran on an anti-Trump platform but eventually withdrew from the race.
At the beginning of the day on Wednesday, President Trump posted a detailed biography of Mr. Bisignano on social media and wished him and his family well without revealing the position for which Mr. Bisignano was being appointed. An hour later, the president clarified the situation, putting an end to the speculation about Mr. Bisignano’s new role.
Minho Kim reports on current events and environmental issues, working out of Washington. Learn more about Minho Kim.
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