The OCC Must Act Before Banks Lose Out on the Crypto Custody Market
The OCC must create a regulatory framework for on‑chain crypto custody and yield products before banks lose deposit customers to decentralized alternatives. On‑chain vault infrastructure can automatically deploy idle balances into market‑rate yields, eroding the traditional subsidy banks provide. Historical precedents show banks lose deposits when competitors offer higher returns, and regulators such as the SEC are already moving on custody rules. Prompt engagement with the OCC could give banks tools to compete and capture new crypto‑lending revenue.
Bitcoin's Value Is About More than Who Created It or What It Costs
A New York Times analysis by reporter John Carreyou argues that cryptographer Adam Back matches the writing style of Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, and could be the elusive founder. Back publicly denies the claim, and the article notes that definitive proof would...
Fifth Third Official: AI Will Help Banks 'Out-Code' Vendors
Fifth Third Bank’s consumer‑lending head Jay Plum says AI will let banks "out‑code" legacy core providers and automate risk reviews, turning the annual exam scramble into continuous "mini reviews." He highlighted that AI‑driven customization can differentiate customer experience and reduce loan...
White House Says Stablecoin Yield Won't Hurt Bank Deposits
The White House Council of Economic Advisers released a report showing that prohibiting stablecoin issuers from paying yield would raise bank lending by about $2.1 billion – just 0.02% of total loans – contradicting banking industry warnings of massive deposit outflows....
Visa Expands Agentic Commerce; Revolut Battles Italian Regulators
Visa unveiled Intelligent Commerce Connect, an agent‑agnostic on‑ramp that lets AI agents pay with Visa and non‑Visa cards, currently piloting with six partners including Aldar and AWS. Mastercard demonstrated another AI‑driven ride‑booking transaction in Thailand, underscoring its APAC agentic‑commerce push....
Treasury Proposes AML Rules for Stablecoin Issuers
The Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued a proposal that subjects stablecoin issuers to bank‑like anti‑money‑laundering (AML) and counter‑terrorist‑financing rules. The draft mirrors recent FDIC and OCC guidance, demanding risk‑based AML programs, SAR filing at the $5,000...
Capital One Pushes Deeper Into AI, Business Payments
Capital One has closed a $5 billion acquisition of fintech Brex, adding roughly 35,000 business‑banking clients and a suite of agentic‑AI tools. The deal follows Capital One’s $51.8 billion purchase of Discover, positioning it among the largest U.S. credit‑card issuers. Brex’s AI...
Big AI Spenders Are Reaping Large Productivity Gains
American Banker’s 2026 AI Talent Shift survey of 206 banking professionals shows AI adoption is delivering sizable productivity gains. Respondents who increased AI spending by at least 25% reported a 60% rise in employee productivity, while AI integration was cited...
Basel Draft Leaves Nonbank Warehouse Financing in Limbo
The Basel III draft proposes lower risk weights for banks’ drawn warehouse lines, potentially encouraging banks to retain more mortgage assets. Large, systemically important banks could see the weight fall to 65%, while standard banks may drop to 95%. At...
Florida De Novo Group Set to Exit the Starting Blocks
Portrait Bank, a Winter Park‑based de novo community bank, is set to launch in June 2026 after a "wildly successful" capital raise that netted $42 million from 248 investors, well above the $28 million regulator‑mandated minimum. The bank received conditional approvals from both...
Santander, Webster Name Key Business Leaders Ahead of Merger
Santander U.S. and Webster Financial have appointed post‑merger leaders as they await regulatory clearance for their $12.3 billion acquisition. The leadership slate mixes current Santander executives with Webster veterans, while two senior Santander managers will exit by June 30. If approved, the combined...
Judge Denies UBS Request in Dispute over Nazi-Looted Assets
A federal judge in Brooklyn rejected UBS's bid to obtain a court interpretation of the 1999 settlement that bars further claims over Holocaust‑victim assets. UBS sought clarification to pre‑empt potential lawsuits stemming from allegations that Credit Suisse concealed Nazi‑linked accounts...
Banks Prepare to Catch Human Traffickers at the World Cup
Financial institutions are gearing up for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, deploying AI‑driven monitoring to spot human‑trafficking and scam activity in transaction data. The nonprofit The Knoble, working with more than 740 banks, has released a detection guide co‑developed with fraud‑tech...
Banks Are Missing Out on a Huge Wave of Infrastructure Finance Deals
Traditional banks ceded the fastest‑growing infrastructure finance segment—renewable energy—to private capital after the Net‑Zero Banking Alliance collapsed in 2025. Annual energy‑transition investment hit a record $2.3 trillion, while private equity and credit firms deployed multi‑billion‑dollar deals, outpacing banks constrained by Basel...
FCC Hits Telecom Firm that Enabled Bank Impersonation Calls
The FCC has issued a notice seeking a $4.5 million penalty against Voxbeam Telecommunications for allegedly routing tens of thousands of bank‑impersonation robocalls. The agency says Voxbeam transmitted about 61,000 spoofed calls between March 31 and April 3, 2025, with roughly 80% displaying...
Earned Wage Access Programs Are Simply Not Loan Products
Earned wage access (EWA) programs let workers withdraw earned wages before payday without interest, fees, or credit checks. A University of Oregon study found first‑time users increased net monthly income by $334, an 11.5% rise, with no rise in overdraft...
How Fifth Third Grew Embedded Banking Fee Revenue 53% in 2025
Fifth Third’s Newline embedded‑banking platform posted a 53% year‑over‑year increase in fee revenue for 2025, making it the fastest‑growing segment of the bank’s commercial payments business. The growth was driven by new partnerships with Stripe, Trustly, ADP and Corepay, and by...
Mortgage Credit Costs Jumped 10x in 4 Years: CHLA
The Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) reports that mortgage‑credit‑score costs have surged from roughly $150‑$250 per loan in April 2024 to an average above $500, a ten‑fold increase over four years. The association blames FICO’s price hikes as the primary...
AI Agents Are Coming for Money Launderers
DailyPay, an earned‑wage‑access platform handling about $30 billion annually, has deployed agentic AI from ComplyAdvantage to bolster its anti‑money‑laundering (AML) operations. The autonomous AI agent gathers and summarizes transaction data, feeding it to human analysts who retain final decision authority. According...
SoFi to Offer Combined Fiat and Crypto Enterprise Banking
Fintech lender SoFi announced the launch of SoFi Big Business Banking, an enterprise platform that lets companies manage fiat and cryptocurrency transactions within a single, nationally chartered bank. The service offers 24/7 settlement, supports the SoFiUSD stablecoin and major crypto partners such as...
Fed's Barr: Weakening Oversight Risks 'Race to the Bottom'
Federal Reserve Governor Michael Barr warned that the current deregulatory push, especially cuts to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, could trigger a systemic "race to the bottom." He highlighted that the CFPB has lost roughly one‑third of its workforce, eroding...
Bowman Says Capital Changes Will Fuel Small-Business Lending
Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michele Bowman unveiled a proposed capital framework that could free up to $100 billion for small‑business lending by lowering risk‑weightings on bank assets under Basel III. The change targets community and regional banks that hold roughly...
Rep. Hill Blames the Senate for Failing to Pass Bank Relief
House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill warned that two of his key banking reform bills—targeting digital assets and community‑bank relief—remain stalled in the Senate. He urged community‑bank lenders to pressure their senators to restore the stripped‑out provisions in the...
Bankers Say AI Is Not Eating Jobs, Yet
A new American Banker AI Talent Shift Survey 2026 finds only 3% of bankers report AI‑driven layoffs, while 28% see efficiency gains and 12% note role augmentation. Despite current optimism, 33% of executives at large national banks expect headcount reductions...
Banks Need to Get Serious About Climate Risk in Their Mortgage Books
Mortgage lenders are being urged to embed climate risk into underwriting as extreme weather events surge, threatening property values and insurance availability. In 2025, the United States experienced 23 billion‑dollar disasters, the third‑highest year on record, underscoring the financial stakes....
Solana 101: What It Is and Why some Banks Use It
Solana is positioning itself as a high‑throughput blockchain alternative to Ethereum, boasting over 25,000 transactions per second and fees that are a fraction of a cent. The network’s cryptographic clock eliminates ordering disputes, enabling a multi‑lane processing model. Major financial...
U.S. Bank, Mastercard Take Amazon's Small-Business Cards From Amex
U.S. Bank will assume issuance of Amazon’s Business and Business Prime credit cards, with Mastercard serving as the network provider, replacing American Express. The move opens a cross‑sell channel to Amazon’s roughly 1.9 million U.S. small‑business sellers and adds to U.S. Bank’s existing base of...
Maybe Wells Fargo's Unions Need a Blockchain
Unionization efforts at Wells Fargo have hit a setback as employees at branches in Apex, North Carolina; Spring Hill, Florida; and Casper, Wyoming are either voting to decertify or preparing to do so, reversing earlier victories that saw 28 locations successfully unionize. The...
Union Decertification Efforts at Wells Fargo Gain Steam
Union decertification efforts at Wells Fargo are accelerating after two branches—Apex, N.C., and Spring Hill, Fla.—voted to end union representation, while a third in Casper, Wyo., remains on hold pending a labor‑practice settlement. The bank, which operates over 4,000 branches, previously...
Former Flagstar Chairman to Step Down From Board of Directors
Alessandro DiNello, former Flagstar Financial CEO and non‑executive chairman, announced he will not seek re‑election and will leave the board on June 9. His departure follows a brief stint as executive chairman during a 2024 crisis that saw the bank post...
U.S. Bank Extends Loan Terms in Bid to Address Affordability
U.S. Bank announced it will extend its home‑improvement loan terms from five years to six or seven years, targeting larger renovation projects. The move is designed to address growing affordability concerns among American households as home‑improvement spending stays above $600 billion...
Loan Sale Cuts Bank's Thorny Ties to West Va. Lawmaker
Carter Bankshares sold its remaining Justice family loan portfolio for $289.5 million, covering $209.5 million of non‑performing loans and most lost interest. The transaction cuts the bank's non‑performing loan ratio from 6.29% to 0.82% and reverses an $18 million specific reserve, boosting tangible...
Square Updates AI to Expand and Speed up Merchant Lending
Square, the merchant‑focused arm of Block, has upgraded its machine‑learning underwriting engine to extend loans to seasonal and newly onboarded merchants. The new model can assess creditworthiness from a business’s first payment, cutting the evaluation period from weeks to minutes....
Fed's Miran Makes Case for Small Balance Sheet
Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran urged a substantial reduction of the Fed’s balance sheet, proposing a cut of $1‑$2 trillion to restore a more neutral monetary stance. He suggested easing liquidity‑coverage‑ratio rules, destigmatizing repo and discount‑window facilities, and allowing securities to...
Sen. Durbin, D-Ill., Reintroduces Credit Card Airline Bill
Sen. Dick Durbin has reintroduced legislation that would empower the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Transportation and the Federal Trade Commission to regulate airline‑branded credit cards and rewards programs. The bill would force airlines to disclose the monetary...
AEI Panel: GSEs Have Never Paid for Their Guarantee
The Trump administration has pledged to retain the implicit government guarantee for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but experts warned that the guarantee has never been paid for by taxpayers. A panel at the American Enterprise Institute highlighted that the...
House Gives Deposit Insurance Reform Another Try
The House Financial Services Committee unveiled a new legislative package to reform deposit insurance, featuring a revised Main Street Depositor Protection Act that caps coverage for non‑interest‑bearing business accounts at $5 million, down from earlier proposals of $10‑$20 million. The bill delegates...
FSOC Guidance Sets 'Very High' Bar for Nonbank Designation
The Financial Stability Oversight Council voted to issue guidance that pivots to an activities‑based framework for designating non‑bank firms as systemically important, reinstating the high‑threshold standards first used in 2019. The proposal rescinds the Biden‑era rule that lowered the bar,...
Zions' Latest Deal Will Boost Its Multifamily Business
Zions Bancorp announced an agreement to acquire Basis Investment Group’s multifamily lending business, gaining access to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan programs and associated servicing rights. The acquisition, pending agency approval, adds personnel and agency‑lending lines, positioning Zions to expand its...
Echelon Bank to Join 'Trickle' Of De Novos in Florida
Echelon Bank has met its $23 million capital target and secured both Florida state and FDIC approvals, positioning it to open in late May as Tampa Bay’s first new bank in five years. The launch joins a scant handful of de novo...
$300 AI Tool Kits Let Criminals Bypass Bank Security
Criminals can now purchase AI‑enabled identity‑fraud kits for under $300, combining stolen personal data, synthetic‑material printers and deep‑fake software to bypass bank KYC checks in minutes. Demonstrations at the 2026 RSAC conference showed tools like ProKYC feeding fabricated videos into...
MISMO, ALTA Issue New Title, Settlement Document Guidelines
The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO) and the American Land Title Association (ALTA) have released two new digital datasets covering ALTA title policies and settlement statements. These standards convert traditional paper forms into structured data, enabling seamless exchange across...
Big Banks Are Leading the On-Chain and Stablecoin Race
American Banker’s 2026 Value of On‑Chain survey of 199 banking professionals shows large banks are furthest along in adopting on‑chain technology. About 30% have implemented or piloted on‑chain solutions, with cross‑border payments emerging as the leading use case for both...
More Home Sellers than Buyers, a Lot More
Redfin data reveals a record housing imbalance in February, with 630,000 more sellers than buyers – a 30 % year‑over‑year increase and the widest gap since 2013. Despite mortgage rates near four‑year lows, demand remains muted, turning most U.S. metros into...
It's Past Time for Paper Checks to Follow the Penny Into Extinction
Paper checks remain a costly, fraud‑prone legacy in the United States. In 2024 the Federal Reserve processed $175 billion in checks, incurring nearly $700 million in support costs, while checks accounted for 65% of payment‑fraud losses. Check volume has dropped 83% over...
Banks Urged to 'Shift Left' To Fight Elder Fraud
Elder financial exploitation cost U.S. seniors $4.9 billion in 2024, prompting banks and credit unions to adopt a “shift left” strategy that intervenes earlier in the fraud kill chain. Speakers at RSAC 2026 urged financial institutions to break down cyber‑fraud silos,...
Activist Investor Wants Board Shakeup at Maryland-Based Eagle
Activist investor Diligence Capital Management, owning 27,500 Eagle Bancorp shares, is urging the Maryland‑based lender to add three directors with bank‑turnaround experience and replace chairman James Soltesz. Eagle, a $10.5 billion‑asset bank, is still searching for a new CEO after a...
This Cash-Rich Boston-Area Bank Is on the Lookout for Deals
Cambridge Savings Bank, a depositor‑owned institution with $6.9 billion in assets, has bolstered its capital base and is now prepared to pursue regional acquisitions. Equity rose 16% to $703.5 million and deposits grew 3.6% to $5.57 billion, driven by its digital arm Ivy...
'I Did Not Call Myself a Dictator:' Credit-Union CEO
California Coast Credit Union CEO Todd Lane is embroiled in a rare, combative merger dispute with San Diego County Credit Union (SDCCU). After SDCCU attempted to renegotiate the April 2025 deal and install its own CEO, Cal Coast sued, alleging breach of the...
Formerly 'Troubled' Bank Reaches Truce with Activist Investor
The Stilwell Group reached a standstill agreement with Lake Shore Bancorp, securing a board seat while agreeing not to buy more stock, sue, or force a sale. In return, Lake Shore appointed Dennis Pollack, a known Stilwell associate, to its...
