The episode examines the rapid growth of commercial lending by credit unions, highlighting how regulatory changes since the 1990s—especially the 2016 waiver process and the rise of low‑income designations—have allowed many credit unions to exceed historic lending caps. Dan Brown and John Vermillion note that larger credit unions and those that have acquired banks now hold disproportionately high commercial loan balances, often with looser underwriting standards than banks, raising potential financial‑stability concerns. They also discuss the uneven regulatory expertise of the NCUA compared with bank supervisors and question whether the current practices align with credit unions’ original public‑service mission.
In this episode, Hatch Bank President Amanda Swarverland discusses the evolution of sponsor banking, sharing her journey from risk officer at Sunrise Bank to fintech executive at Unit and back to banking leadership. She highlights the strategic choices banks must...
Rob Nichols, CEO of the American Bankers Association, reflected on the ABA Washington Summit, highlighting the unprecedented unity of 1,400‑plus senior bankers advocating on stablecoin regulation, fraud prevention, and regulatory right‑sizing. He emphasized the industry’s bipartisan push to close a...
In this episode, Paul Benda explains the SCAM Act introduced by Senators Ruben Gallego and Bernie Moreno, which would impose new know‑your‑customer and ad‑takedown obligations on major tech platforms that profit from fraudulent advertising. He outlines why current market incentives...
In this episode, Ron Butler, chairman of the Texas Bankers Association and CAO of First Financial Bank, explains why Texas’s economy—large enough to rank eighth globally if it were a country—makes the state a magnet for investment and out‑of‑state bank...