Banking News and Headlines
Banking News and Headlines
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Daily
Every morning
Weekly
Tuesday recap
Covenant Review released its latest quarterly snapshot of new‑issue institutional loans that include a pick‑your‑poison covenant provision. The accompanying chart tracks the share of such loans by quarter, showing a clear upward trajectory over the past two years. The data set, available for download, highlights how lenders are increasingly offering borrowers the option to select among multiple restrictive covenants. This shift reflects evolving risk‑management practices in the leveraged‑loan market.
McGrath RentCorp posted Q4 2025 net income of $34.8 million, or $2.79 per share, and full‑year earnings of $134 million, $10.41 per share. Loan growth accelerated to more than 12% quarter‑over‑quarter while deposits rose 7.4% in the quarter, indicating strong demand. At...
Federal Reserve Vice Chair Michelle Bowman hinted at regulatory tweaks that could pull banks back into mortgage lending, reversing a decline from 60% of originations in 2008 to roughly 35% today. By reconsidering how mortgage‑servicing rights are accounted for, the...
The IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS‑CI) unit relied on Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) filings for 94% of its FY25 probes, conducting over 3.9 million searches. BSA data linked to 89% of cases, directly originating 11.7% of investigations. Tax‑related fraud investigations uncovered $2.9 billion...
Bank holdings of residential mortgage‑backed securities (MBS) fell sharply in the fourth quarter, registering a net outflow of roughly $12.4 billion, the lowest level since early 2021. The decline was uneven, with large banks cutting positions more aggressively than regional lenders,...
Morningstar DBRS confirmed BBVA's long‑term issuer rating at A (high) and short‑term rating at R‑1 (middle), while shifting the trend on all long‑term ratings from Stable to Positive. The agency cited the bank’s resilient earnings, boosted by higher interest rates...
Home prices edged higher in the latest quarter, while Chase announced a modest rate discount to spur loan demand. Retail giant Bed Bath & Beyond entered the mortgage origination space, signaling non‑traditional players’ interest in housing finance. Bayview Capital began stocking GSE‑eligible loans...
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde highlighted the digital euro as a core part of her legacy, noting its progress from research to a live policy effort. The project is now in a "preparation phase" with technical design and pilot...
FIS is pivoting to its core card‑issuing business after selling Worldpay, aiming at banks that grow faster than the market. The company has launched its first agentic‑commerce platform, enabling AI‑driven purchases on behalf of consumers while bolstering fraud defenses. A...
MoonPay introduced MoonPay Agents, a non‑custodial, permissionless financial layer that lets AI agents control funded crypto wallets. Users complete a one‑time KYC and link a payment method, after which the AI can autonomously trade, swap and move funds. The service...
Camunda introduced a Skyflow connector that tokenizes and de‑identifies PII/PHI within BPMN workflows. The connector forwards selected fields to Skyflow’s vault, replaces them with tokens, and permits controlled re‑identification only at approved steps. This approach shrinks the cleartext data footprint...
A consortium of leading financial institutions executed the first cross‑border, intraday repurchase agreement using tokenized U.K. government bonds on the Canton Network. The trade featured the inaugural cross‑currency swap of tokenized gilts for tokenized deposits, with smart contracts encoding interest...
Citizens Bank’s Chief Information Officer Michael Ruttledge outlines how the institution’s "Next Gen Technology" initiative has driven a full migration of its legacy mainframe workloads to public cloud platforms Azure and AWS. Since joining in 2019, Ruttledge has overseen a...
The Africa Digital Banking Experience report shows mobile handsets have become the primary gateway to banking across the continent. With mobile penetration rising and smartphones becoming affordable, banks are shifting to mobile‑first strategies and redesigning products for handset users. While...
LMS, through its NPTN network, has entered the Bank of England’s Synchronisation Lab to pilot a synchronized settlement model for remortgages. The eight‑week test will run in a simulated Real‑Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) environment, splitting payments into earmark and settle...
Safaricom is piloting Shiriki Pay, a mini‑app inside the M‑PESA super app that lets a sponsor delegate up to two beneficiaries a monthly spending allowance drawn directly from the sponsor’s wallet. The feature caps usage, supports Buy Goods, Paybill, Pochi...
Big Canadian banks often send mortgage renewal forms just weeks before the due date, offering rates that can be two percentage points higher than competing offers. In a recent example, a borrower faced a 6.09% fixed rate versus a 4.04%...
The U.S. market‑structure bill’s permissibility section would formally allow banks and their holding companies to own and transact in digital assets, effectively expanding the range of activities deemed permissible under the National Bank Act. Critics argue that simply placing an...
UOB's CFO Leong Yung Chee said the bank's provisions for commercial‑real‑estate exposures in Greater China and the United States are more than adequate as bad‑debt formation slowed in Q4 2025. Problematic US CRE loans represent about 1% of the local...
KPMG International’s new report warns that banks and retailers must forge strategic partnerships to keep pace with rapid payment‑technology change. Survey data from 500 banks and 500 retailers shows 54 % of retailers consider payment modernization essential, yet only 45 % say...
Kenya’s Central Bank announced a consultancy to review the Central Bank Act and the Banking Act. The overhaul targets ambiguous provisions affecting digital banking, fintech regulation, consumer protection and cybersecurity. The current legal grey zone has delayed operating licences for...
A Visa‑PYMNTS Working Capital Index shows nearly 50% of Asia‑Pacific growth‑stage firms (revenues $50 M‑$1 B) lack usable working‑capital tools, citing mismatched product design. CFOs demand flexible, sector‑specific digital financing, especially virtual and commercial cards that act as short‑term funding sources. High‑performing...
The UK overdraft market has collapsed from £18 bn to £2.7 bn, leaving a £15 bn funding gap for SMEs. With high‑street banks pulling back, many small firms now finance day‑to‑day cash flow through personal credit cards and director reimbursements – a practice...
The Clearing House’s chief strategy officer, Sal Karakaplan, declared “trust” the 2026 word of the year for payments, arguing it is the functional prerequisite for new players, technologies, and flows to gain lasting adoption. He highlighted the RTP® network’s expansion—now reaching...
The 2025 Global Digital Shopping Index, commissioned by Visa Acceptance Solutions, found that 48% of shoppers used a mobile device for their most recent retail purchase, with usage exceeding 60% in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Mobile browsing frequency is...
TRM Labs and Finray Technologies have integrated Finray’s XZiel compliance engine with TRM’s blockchain intelligence, creating a unified system for monitoring crypto and fiat transactions. The platform delivers real‑time risk alerts, automated case management and a detailed audit trail across...
Marriott Bonvoy and Indonesia’s state‑owned Bank Mandiri have launched the Marriott Bonvoy Mandiri credit card, the hospitality brand’s first co‑branded card in Southeast Asia and its 35th worldwide. The product targets Indonesia’s fast‑growing travel segment, leveraging Mandiri’s digital reach and...
Commonwealth Bank of Australia announced the elimination of 300 positions, primarily within its technology division, as part of a broader workforce reshaping. The cuts coincide with a $90 million, three‑year upskilling initiative designed to ready staff for an AI‑driven shift over...
Mashreq Bank has introduced a fully digital cross‑border account service that lets UAE‑based Pakistani expatriates open a Mashreq Pakistan account through the UAE mobile app. The offering replaces manual paperwork with a seamless, end‑to‑end digital experience and integrates a unified...
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned that today’s aggressive loan‑making resembles the pre‑2008 buildup that led to the financial crisis. He said some rivals are taking “dumb” actions to inflate net interest income, while JPMorgan remains disciplined even if it means...
Equifax Canada’s Q4 2025 credit report shows total consumer debt rose to $2.65 trillion, up 3.1% year‑over‑year, driven by higher mortgage balances and a 4.5% jump in non‑mortgage debt. Non‑mortgage delinquency peaked at 1.73%, with the 26‑35 age group posting the highest...
Malaysia’s Securities Commission issued a practice note allowing licensed stockbrokers with Capital Markets Services licences to provide broking services for approved digital assets under existing securities rules. Brokers must obtain regulator concurrence, use locally registered exchanges or vetted foreign platforms,...
Visa announced the acquisition of Argentina’s Prisma Medios de Pago and the fintech platform Newpay, marking a strategic push into Latin America’s payments ecosystem. The combined deal, valued at over $200 million, will be funded largely with cash. By integrating Prisma’s...
A strong credit score remains the linchpin for securing a home loan, especially as interest rates climb and property price growth slows. Lenders assess borrowers through the five C's—character, capacity, capital, collateral and conditions—using the credit report as a proxy...
China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, announced that both the 1‑year and 5‑year Loan Prime Rates (LPR) remain unchanged for the ninth consecutive month. The 1‑year LPR held at 3.45% while the 5‑year LPR stayed at 4.20%, reflecting...
Citigroup announced the sale of an additional 24% stake in its Mexican retail bank, Grupo Financiero Banamex, for roughly $2.5 billion. The shares were bought by a consortium that includes Blackstone, General Atlantic, Brazil's BTG Pactual and Mexico's Afore Sura, among others. The...
The 2025 CSBS Annual Survey reveals community banks are feeling heightened pressure from non‑bank competitors, especially in payments and wealth‑management services, while deposit‑rate volatility forces more aggressive pricing. Cybercrime emerges as the top internal risk, with card and identity fraud...
Washington State’s House Bill 2089 seeks to restore dwindling wildfire‑prevention funding by revoking a tax deduction that currently benefits large digital mortgage lenders. The deduction, originally crafted for community banks, generated $91.6 million in savings in 2024, with 65 % captured by...
Traditional lenders are eyeing the expanding non‑agency mortgage market as originations have roughly tripled in recent years, driven by growing appetite for non‑owner‑occupied and non‑QM loans. Securitization activity surged 78% in 2025, while delinquencies on non‑QM assets have risen above...
Bank holdings of residential mortgage‑backed securities dropped in Q4, while investor appetite for GSE‑eligible non‑agency loans surged. The CFPB reported a lower share of complaints receiving relief, and fintech Better turned to stablecoins for warehouse funding. M&A activity is reshaping...
Commonwealth Bank completed a migration from an on‑premises SAP R/3 mainframe to an SAP S/4 HANA core hosted on AWS in October 2023. The new in‑memory architecture cut infrastructure costs by 30% and boosted processing performance by the same margin,...
Crypto.com has secured conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to charter Foris Dax National Trust Bank, operating as Crypto.com National Trust Bank. The bank will deliver custody, staking and trade‑settlement services under OCC supervision,...
The SEC will host a Private Markets Roundtable on March 4, 2026 to discuss the retailization of private securities. Currently, non‑accredited investors are limited to Reg A and Reg CF, while most private offerings remain inaccessible. Pending legislation could relax accredited‑investor thresholds, adding a...
Finovate’s weekly roundup highlights a flurry of fintech activity as Flywire names a new CTO, MoneyHash teams with Wayl to enter Iraq, and Payabli partners with Huntington Bank to embed payments in digital banking. Worldline launches One Commerce for omnichannel...
Cornell Law professor Dan Awrey released a working paper titled "Banking, Technology, and Instability" analyzing fintech‑driven Banking‑as‑a‑Service (BaaS). The paper argues BaaS flips traditional outsourcing, with fintechs delegating core banking functions to partner banks, creating regulatory arbitrage. This shift destabilizes...
Bank mortgage‑banking earnings slipped in the fourth quarter, falling roughly 12% year‑over‑year despite a modest 5% rise in loan volume. Residential mortgage‑backed securities (MBS) holdings saw a sharp decline, while demand for non‑agency, GSE‑eligible loans surged. Banks turned to stablecoin‑based...
Mortgage investors are bracing for short‑term disruption as major credit bureaus roll out next‑generation scoring models that incorporate alternative data and machine‑learning algorithms. The new frameworks promise finer risk granularity but also introduce uncertainty around model validation, regulatory approval, and...
Industry analysts warn that moving away from the established tri‑merge securitization framework could introduce significant operational and liquidity risks for mortgage lenders. The tri‑merge process, which bundles GSE‑eligible loans from multiple originators, has underpinned stable funding flows for years. A...
Redwood introduced an expanded‑credit mortgage‑backed security, widening the pool of agency‑eligible assets as banks see their residential MBS holdings dip in Q4. Mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) are now being offered directly, reflecting heightened M&A activity that is reshaping the conventional...
Stablecore has joined Jack Henry’s Fintech Integration Network, allowing its stablecoin and digital‑asset services to be delivered through the Banno digital‑banking platform used by over 1,000 banks and credit unions. The integration adds tokenized deposits, asset management and digital‑asset‑backed lending...
