Today's Banking Pulse
Mortgage refinance demand falls 18% as rates climb to 6.65%
Refinance applications dropped 18% week-over-week, with the average 30-year fixed rate rising to 6.65%, the highest since August 2025. Refinance filings now represent just 38% of total mortgage applications, the lowest share since June 2025, while purchase‑loan volume edged down 0.4% and average loan size hit $473,600.
Trump Orders Review of Fintech Firms' Access to Fed Payment Services
President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Federal Reserve to review barriers that limit fintech and crypto firms' access to its payment systems. The Fed must deliver a 120‑day report assessing its legal authority to grant direct connections and recommend risk‑managed expansion. Federal regulators are also tasked with examining rules that impede fintech partnerships with banks, credit unions, broker‑dealers and investment advisers. The order follows recent OCC approvals of five crypto‑related national trust banks, signaling a shift toward easing debanking pressures.
UK Auto ABS and FCA CP 26/6: Reporting, Reloaded
The Financial Conduct Authority issued Consultation Paper CP26/6 in February 2026, proposing a streamlined regulatory framework for UK securitisations, with a focus on auto loan and lease asset‑backed securities. The paper introduces revised reporting templates that add UK‑specific data fields while...
Wall Street Watchdogs Pause Some Cyber Exams After Mythos Shock
U.S. regulators, including the Federal Reserve and OCC, have temporarily paused cyber‑related examinations of the nation’s largest banks to give them time to assess risks from Anthropic’s new Mythos AI model. Anthropic announced limited access to Mythos and launched Project...
Trump Orders Banks to Take a Closer Look at Clients' Citizenship in New Immigration Enforcement Move
President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing U.S. bank regulators to increase scrutiny of customers' citizenship status. The order stops short of mandating banks to collect citizenship data, offering only guidance to mitigate credit risk from potential deportations. It...
POTUS Acknowledges Fed Blocking Legal Institutions From Payment System
THANK YOU, @POTUS, for recognizing that there is a continuing problem at the @federalreserve with blocking legally-eligible institutions from access to the US payment system, which is a public good. https://t.co/aopXkpkHkU
Commerzbank Rejects UniCredit's €39 Billion Takeover Offer, Stalling European Banking Consolidation
Commerzbank’s supervisory and management boards told shareholders on May 18 to reject UniCredit’s €39 billion ($45.4 billion) exchange offer, arguing the price undervalues the German lender and could jeopardize shareholder value. The refusal adds a new hurdle to UniCredit’s push for pan‑European consolidation.
California Fines Yotta $1M for Deceiving Savers
California’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation fined Yotta Technologies $1 million for falsely marketing its prize‑linked savings accounts as fully FDIC‑insured. Internal communications reveal Yotta executives privately doubted the reliability of Synapse, the banking‑as‑a‑service partner that held customer funds, yet...
Goldman Sachs Swaps XRP and Solana ETFs for Bigger Bitcoin Call Options Position
Goldman Sachs fully exited its XRP and Solana exchange‑traded fund positions in the first quarter of 2026 and more than doubled its call‑option exposure on BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF to 6.8 million shares, while maintaining a large put‑option hedge. The move...
Standard Chartered to Trim Over 15% of Corporate Jobs by 2030
Standard Chartered Plc said it will eliminate over 15% of corporate‑functions positions by 2030 as it rolls out a sustainable medium‑term profitability plan. The move follows the bank’s early achievement of its 2026 financial targets and aims to boost productivity...
ECB Updates Good Practices for Climate and Nature-Related Risk Management
On 8 May 2026 the European Central Bank updated its non‑binding compendium of good practices for climate and nature‑related risk management and stress testing. The revision adds detailed guidance on physical and nature‑related risks and offers proportional tools for smaller, less exposed...
Chime CEO: Pursuing Bank Charter Is ‘a when, Not If’
Chime’s CEO Chris Britt told investors that obtaining a U.S. bank charter is a matter of "when," not "if," as the fintech re‑evaluates timing amid a regulator‑friendly climate. The company currently serves about 10.2 million monthly active members and partners with...
Lenders Look at Operational Changes in Credit Score Update
Lenders Guild Mortgage and NewRez are testing the new FICO 10T and VantageScore 4.0 models alongside the legacy FICO Classic to gauge risk and servicing value. Both firms report significant technology work, such as adding new data fields and updating loan‑origination systems,...
Bank Leumi Posts 2.4% Q1 Net Income Drop to $805 M Amid Regional Tensions
Bank Leumi reported a 2.4% decline in first‑quarter net income to NIS 2.35 bn (≈$805 m), while loan and deposit balances expanded. The results came as regional war worries rattled the Tel Aviv market, yet the bank’s shares rose 1.94% on the day...
Credit Card Delinquencies Fall, Loan Growth Accelerates
April credit card data showed the average DQ rate was -21bps y/y and the NCO rate -41bps y/y. $COF, $BFH, and $SYF saw loan growth improve sequentially as well.
Mahindra, DBS Bank Launch India’s First Green Dealer Financing Scheme
Mahindra & Mahindra and DBS Bank India have signed an MoU to launch India’s first sustainability‑linked dealer financing scheme for automotive sales. The programme offers participating Mahindra dealers preferential loan rates that are tied to performance against ESG metrics such as...
US Lenders Write Down Up to 85% on Distressed Commercial‑Real‑Estate Loans
Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and other lenders are taking up to 85% write‑downs on troubled commercial‑real‑estate loans, confronting more than $130 billion of distressed debt. The move ends a three‑year “extend‑and‑pretend” era and could reshape financing for office and multifamily assets.
Klarna's Stock Slides 62% From IPO Peak as Profit Turns Positive
Klarna's shares have fallen 62% from their first‑day closing price a year after the 2025 IPO, while the Swedish BNPL leader posted its first net profit in Q1 2026, driven by higher merchant fees, a booming Fair Financing product and...
Monzo Profits Soar Amid European Expansion
Monzo announced a record £1 billion (≈$1.27 billion) gross profit, marking its third straight year of profitability. Adjusted profit before tax jumped 20% to £172.6 million (≈$219 million) while revenue rose 39%, with four core streams each topping £300 million (≈$381 million). The bank added 3 million...
OpenAI Launches Account‑Linking Finance Tools for ChatGPT Pro, Targeting 200 Million Users
OpenAI unveiled personal‑finance tools for ChatGPT Pro on May 15, 2026, letting subscribers link bank, credit‑card and investment accounts through Plaid. The read‑only feature, priced at $100‑$200 a month, puts AI‑driven budgeting and portfolio dashboards within reach of its 200 million...
Stablecoin Market Could Hit $3 Trillion by 2030, Says Treasury Official
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that the stablecoin industry, now valued at $300 billion, may swell to $3 trillion by the end of 2030. The projection fuels heightened activity from payment giants, banks and issuers seeking to lock in a share of...
PRA Publishes Dear CEO Letter Reaffirming Its Position and Clarifying Expectations on Innovations in the Use of Deposits, E-Money and...
On 18 May 2026 the Prudential Regulation Authority issued a new Dear CEO letter that supersedes its 2023 guidance on deposit‑takers’ use of deposits, e‑money and regulated stablecoins. The PRA stresses that innovations must be offered only to retail customers as deposits, and...
PRA Publishes Dear CEO Letter on the Prudential Treatment of Tokenised Assets, Stablecoins, and Other Cryptoasset Exposures
On 18 May 2026 the Prudential Regulation Authority issued a new Dear CEO letter updating its prudential expectations for tokenised assets, stablecoins and other crypto‑asset exposures. The guidance reaffirms the 2022 risk‑control and Pillar 1/2 frameworks, maintains a 100 % capital charge for unbacked crypto,...
PRA to Ease Ring-Fence Rules to Cut Bank Costs
The Prudential Regulation Authority will launch a summer consultation to loosen ring‑fencing rules on shared operational services for the UK’s biggest banks. The proposal would let institutions with more than £35 billion in core deposits (about $44.5 billion) share IT, data‑processing and...
OJK Urges Prudent Risk Controls Amid Prabowo’s 5% Loan Program
Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (OJK) is urging banks to tighten governance and risk management as President Prabowo Subianto rolls out a people‑credit program capped at a 5% annual interest rate. OJK calls for periodic stress tests and adequate loan‑loss reserves...
Revolut Clears Regulatory Hurdle, Launches Full‑service UK Bank
Revolut said the Prudential Regulation Authority has removed limits on its banking licence, allowing the fintech to roll out a full‑service UK bank to its 13 million British customers. The launch follows a pledge to invest up to $4 bn and create...
Discovery Bank Deploys AI to Double App Engagement, Cut Latency 60%
Discovery Bank has launched Discovery AI, an always‑on generative‑AI engine built on Azure OpenAI and Databricks, that slashes response latency by more than half and pushes personalized next‑best‑action engagement to 70% of its users. The rollout marks a shift from...
Poland’s BLIK Joins EuroPA and EPI to Launch Pan‑European Mobile Payment Interoperability
Poland‑based mobile payment service BLIK has become a member of the European Payments Alliance (EuroPA) and the European Payments Initiative (EPI), positioning the app for cross‑border interoperability. The move aims to let users send P2P transfers across the network in...
EU DORA Compliance for Engineering Teams
The EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) became enforceable on Jan 17 2025, imposing fines of up to 2 % of global revenue on firms that cannot prove their software systems are documented, monitored and resilient. Financial‑services technology providers must give auditors a live...
First Bank of Nigeria Rolls Out Naira‑Branded Visa Debit Card to Boost Cashless Payments
First Bank of Nigeria has launched a Naira‑branded Visa debit card in partnership with Visa, targeting everyday consumers and supporting the nation’s cashless‑economy drive. The card will be available to all eligible First Bank account holders nationwide, offering POS, ATM...
Chase Is Boosting Its Cashback to 2% and Expanding Where You Can Earn It – Though You'll Need to Jump...
Chase is doubling its UK cashback rate to 2% this summer, extending the reward to both its debit and credit cards and adding restaurants, cafés and takeaways to the eligible spend categories. The monthly cashback cap rises from £15 to...
Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business Card Review: Useful Perks for Delta Flyers Without Elite Status
The Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business American Express Card offers a 60,000‑mile welcome bonus after $4,000 spend, a $0 introductory fee and a $150 annual fee thereafter. Cardholders earn 2 X miles on Delta, shipping, advertising and dining purchases, plus enjoy a...
African Fintechs Target the Gulf for Global Growth
African fintechs are establishing bases in Dubai to tap the Gulf‑Africa remittance corridor, with players like MNT‑Halan, Paymob, Innovate1Pay and Flutterwave expanding regionally. Migrant workers in the GCC send roughly $36 billion annually—about a third of the $109 billion total remittances to...
IDenfy Teams with Lithuania’s RATO Bank to Boost Mobile KYC Conversion by 9%
iDenfy has integrated its AI‑powered identity verification and AML screening tools into RATO Bank’s digital onboarding flow, lifting mobile conversion rates by 9% in the past month. The partnership lets new customers complete full KYC in under a minute on...
Snowflake Adds Dataiku Bedrock Valid Systems to AI Cloud, Launches Risk Tools
Snowflake announced new AI Data Cloud integrations with Dataiku, Bedrock and Valid Systems, plus a risk‑tool offering that lets smaller banks run sophisticated fraud decisioning on Snowflake’s platform. The moves aim to lock AI workloads inside Snowflake and broaden access...
Fasset Secures $51 Million Series B to Scale Stablecoin Neobank Globally
Fasset announced a $51 million Series B round, the largest in the payments sector for 2026, backed by SBI Group, Arz Portföy, Investcorp and family offices. The capital will accelerate the rollout of its regulated, stablecoin‑based banking services across Asia, Africa...
NCUA Sets Operational Rules for Credit Union Stablecoin Issuers
The National Credit Union Administration has unveiled a rule establishing operational and risk‑management standards for credit‑union‑affiliated stablecoin issuers. The proposal, part of the GENIUS Act framework, opens a comment period through July 17, 2026, and could bring cooperative finance into...
Bank of England Plans Sweeping Overhaul to UK Payments Infrastructure
The Bank of England announced two parallel reforms to modernise the UK payments landscape. It will extend the operating hours of core payment systems to include Sundays and selected bank holidays, aiming for near‑continuous settlement. Simultaneously, the BoE and FCA...
Halifax Could Disappear From UK High Streets as Lloyds Assesses Branding Strategy
Lloyds Banking Group is reviewing its branding strategy and could phase out the Halifax name as early as July 1, consolidating everyday banking under the Lloyds and Bank of Scotland brands. Customers would be transferred to Lloyds apps and branches while...
TIMVERO Launches timveroAI, Slashing Lending Platform Build Time to Weeks
TIMVERO announced the general availability of timveroAI, an AI layer built directly into its timveroOS building platform. The technology compresses initial deployments from four‑to‑six months down to three‑to‑six weeks and automates 70‑80% of the engineering effort, promising faster credit‑product launches...
BoE Consultation – Extending RTGS and CHAPS Settlement Hours – Next Steps Towards Near 24×7 Settlement
On 18 May 2026 the Bank of England released a consultation paper outlining its roadmap to near‑24‑hour RTGS and CHAPS settlement. An early‑morning extension will push CHAPS opening to 01:30 am from September 2027, expanding daily coverage to 16.5 hours. The paper proposes two next‑step...
Uzbekistan’s Banking Delegation Secures Cooperation Agreement with Hong Kong Association of Banks on Digital Finance and Investment
In May 2026 a delegation of Uzbekistan’s commercial banks signed a cooperation agreement with the Hong Kong Association of Banks (HKAB). The deal establishes a permanent bilateral communication platform and a joint roadmap covering digital transformation, investment financing and professional...
UK Regulators Unveil Tokenisation Roadmap for Wholesale Markets
The Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England published a shared vision for tokenisation in UK wholesale markets, outlining regulatory principles and a consultation on near‑24‑hour settlement. The regulators are inviting firms to comment as they move from pilot...
Credit Card Loyalty Is Moving From Plastic to Platforms
Credit card issuers are increasingly viewing their mobile apps as the primary battleground for loyalty, with app quality now shaping which card sits at the top of a consumer’s wallet. A PYMNTS Intelligence and Elan study finds that nearly 70%...
After Kraken’s “Skinny” Fed Account, What’s Next for Crypto?
In March, Kraken became the first cryptocurrency exchange to obtain a Federal Reserve “skinny” master account, granting it direct access to FedWire and FedNow payment rails. The limited account provides settlement capability without traditional banking privileges such as interest earnings...
Policy Paper: Safeguarding Stability, Enabling Growth: The Ring-Fencing Review
The UK Treasury published a policy paper on 18 May 2026 detailing the conclusions of the Ring‑Fencing Review and outlining reforms to the ring‑fencing regime. The review confirms that separating retail from investment banking still underpins financial stability but highlights opportunities for...
Champlain Investment Exits ServisFirst Bancshares in $124M Sale
Champlain Investment Partners, LLC sold its full holding of 1,568,859 ServisFirst Bancshares shares for an estimated $124.23 million, wiping out a 1.58% ownership. The exit comes as the fund trimmed roughly $2 billion of assets under management, signaling a broader portfolio wind‑down...
Michelle W Bowman: Opening Remarks - Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City 2026 Future of Banking Conference
Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman addressed the Kansas City Fed’s Future of Banking conference, highlighting the resilience of the 639 community banks in the 10th District and their unique relationship‑driven models. She criticized the one‑size‑fits‑all regulatory regime—particularly CECL and...
Bank of India Raises Fixed Deposit Rates for Medium- and Long-Term Tenures
Bank of India raised its fixed‑deposit rates for tenures of one to three years, effective May 18, 2026. The new slab offers 6.50% p.a. for one‑year, 6.60% for 1‑to‑2‑year and 6.70% for three‑year deposits, with senior citizens receiving an extra 0.50%‑0.75% and...
UK Regulators Sound Alarm over Frontier AI Threat
UK regulators, led by the Bank of England and the FCA, have issued a stark warning about the systemic risks posed by frontier artificial intelligence models. The guidance urges financial institutions to accelerate the triage and remediation of AI‑related vulnerabilities,...
U.S. Consumers Shift to Digital‑Only Banks, Undermining Retail Giants
U.S. customers are abandoning physical branches for neobanks, driving more than 50 million primary checking accounts to digital‑only platforms. The migration, highlighted by a Wells Fargo branch’s foot‑traffic drop from 80 to 16 daily customers, forces incumbents to confront a new competitive...