The Banker Next Door

A shortage of accountants is beginning to cause disruption with bank and corporation financial reporting and internal controls. The accounting shortage is becoming more widespread after the number of practicing accountants has declined 17% from the profession’s employment peak in 2019. What can banks and corporations do to address this? Try outsourcing certain functions and focusing on AI and Auto...

The Banker Next Door (BND) weekly live stream show. Strategy Room provides financial news, commentary, top stories in the business world, economic indicators, and all things banking for the week.

The SBA has doubled the combined limit on 7(a) and 504 loans from $5 million to $10 million. This is the largest financing ceiling in the history of the agency. This is a tremendous opportunity particularly for companies in manufacturing, construction, logistics, distribution, and food production. In addition, time is running out for fee waivers the SBA enacted for 2026. The SBA is waiving upfront...

This survey includes responses from bank CEOs and board directors. The focus of the survey is around bank board governance. The key findings in this year’s report include AI in the boardroom, strategic planning, board assessments, virtual attendance, policy review, and debanking scrutiny. Additional insights include artificial intelligence adoption in the boardroom remains low, 39% of boards condu...

Bank News: Alma Bank to acquire in-state peer American Community Bank. Federal Reserve approves Santander-Webster merger. Augustus (formerly Ivy) receives FDIC approval to launch bank. Huntingdon Bank sees increased deposit cost competition. WSFS sees persistent deposit competition. Central Bancompany sees stable deposit costs. Seacoast reports lower deposit costs. BCB Bancorp got “too deep” in un...

Four companies are currently racing to develop tokenized deposit networks. The companies include The Clearing House Payments Co., The Cari Network, The Hazel Network, and The DTX Consortium. The Clearing House and Cari Network are being developed by the big banks. The Hazel Network is trying to create more of a niche by allowing customer deposits to convert into digital tokens and then issue, tran...

The SLOOS is a quarter survey of senior bank loan officers that the Federal Reserve puts out quarterly. It measures bank credit underwriting standards and loan demand. The 2nd quarter showed an increase in demand for commercial C&I loans with spreads tightening for large and middle-market firms. For commercial real estate, underwriter standards eased and loan demand remained stable. For reside...

The Banker Next Door (BND) weekly live stream show. Strategy Room provides financial news, commentary, top stories in the business world, economic indicators, and all things banking for the week.

How did America get its banks? How was the American financial system created? How has it evolved over the last 250 years to become the largest economy in the world? This episode seeks to answer these questions by exploring the economic history of the U.S. This episode primarily focuses on Alexander Hamilton and President Andrew Jackson. These two historical figures had immense influence over the A...

Three years in, how is FedNow doing? The FedNow instant payment service realized an 80% increase in volume growth quarter over quarter. Active senders have increased 85% over the last year. FedNow has 1800+ financial institutions participating and membership represents all 50 states. Approximately 50% of members exclusively use the FedNow service. Over 50% of all U.S. checking accounts are reachab...

NACHA released 2nd quarter 2026 number for their ACH Network. Highlights for the 2nd quarter include an almost 30% gain in Same Day ACH, nearly 10% increase in B2B payments, total volume on the ACH Network was 9.3 billion payments with a value of $25.9 trillion, Same Day ACH handled 435.7 million payments up 29.5%. Additionally, volume across major transaction types increased year over year. Healt...

Bank News: BitMEX crypto exchange to close after 11 years. Twin City Bank is rebranded into Increase Bank after receiving regulatory approval on name and business plan changes. PNC targets wealthy clients with new lending option. Rent fintech Flex applies for an ILC banking charter. Banc of California has a large loss of $251MM for the second quarter. The Federal Reserve bans two bankers from futu...

The Private Credit Market has emerged over the last year as a big potential risk to the U.S. banking system. What are the main risks from this newer segment of the lending market? This episode examines four main risks. 1) Banks could experience direct losses from loans secured by private credit funds, i.e. NDFI lending. 2) Banks could lose their largest loan segment. Lending to NDFIs has become bi...

This video is a clip from BND: Strategy Room Live Stream on August 2, 2026. BlackRock and Blackstone both removed private credit executives in July. BlackRock removes Phil Tseng, CEO of their private credit business development company (BDC). He was removed over company performance and an ongoing federal valuation probe. Jonathan Bock resigned from his position as Co-CEO of Blackstone’s BCRED and...

The Banker Next Door (BND) weekly live stream show. Strategy Room provides financial news, commentary, top stories in the business world, economic indicators, and all things banking for the week.

Banking regulators have been approving a lot of bank charters recently and multiple types of charters at that. De Novo charter, Trust Charter, National Bank Charter, and ILC Charter, to name a few. While the OCC is approving charters that does not mean their standards for attaining approval have diminished. There has been a surge of Crypto, fintech, and digital asset companies applying for various...

There are 7 different types of check fraud. They include new account fraud, check kiting, dormant account fraud, counter check fraud, withdrawal fraud, deposit ticket fraud, and split deposit fraud. Which type is the most common? Which is the most invisible? Which is the most evolving? Which is the most targeted? What can banks do to combat check fraud? Banks have many tools at their disposal incl...

Bank News: First Financial buys Finward Bancorp in $208MM deal. Northrim BanCorp acquires PBCO Financial Corp in $167.3MM deal. Gesa Credit Union acquires Willamette Valley Bank. Mechanics & Farmers Bank will merge with Optus Bank. Upstart receives conditional bank charter from the OCC. Wise’s trust bank charter is rejected by the OCC over deficiencies. Former Bank of the Valley CFO, Aaron Lun...

For the 2nd quarter of 2026, Community Banks saw some slight Net Interest Margin (NIM) compression, loan growth increased especially around C&I lending, underwriting tightened for C&I loans while CRE loans remained steady, and the deposit base remained sticky, but funding costs remain higher. There is a question now around the Federal Reserve and whether they will increase interest rates i...

What are the top regulatory ‘hot buttons’ for the banking industry? ICBA does a great job in covering the top regulatory concerns for the U.S. banking industry on a quarterly basis. Big issues currently include Digital Assets Regulatory Framework – the Clarity Act and the Genius Act, Farm Bill, Executive Order on Immigration Status, AI Executive Order, Deposit Insurance, 1033 Rule, Section 1071 Le...

This video is a clip from BND: Strategy Room Live Stream on July 25, 2026. What do surging bond yields mean for consumers? This past week the escalation of the military conflict with Iran sent treasury yields soaring, especially the 10-year and 30-year treasuries. The 10-year treasury has a direct impact on residential mortgage rates, auto loan rates, credit card rates, and student loan rates. As...

The Banker Next Door (BND) weekly live stream show. Strategy Room provides financial news, commentary, top stories in the business world, economic indicators, and all things banking for the week.

Market expectations now favor increasing interest rates and thus expectations around deposit cost pressures have changed. Many banks were hoping for continuing rate decreases to continue relieving funding cost pressures. With the market now expecting the Federal Reserve to increase the Federal Funds rate in the second half of 2026, this means that funding costs will stay flat for the moment and th...

The Texas Stock Exchange TXSE “tex-ee” is gearing up to start trading. With big IPOs getting ready to come to market the TXSE might be opening at just the right time. Texas has been laying the groundwork for making a run at a successful exchange with more Fortune 500 companies headquartered than any other state and the establishment of their own business court. The players are already coming. Gold...

Bank News: Stripe and Advent have teamed up and put in an offer to purchase PayPal. First Bancorp of NC is purchasing First Carolina Bancshares Corp of SC for $166MM. First Hawaiian is purchasing Tri Counties Bank of CA for $2B. New de novo bank named Sagehaven Bancorp to form in Pittsburgh. Regulators issue guidance to banks on unauthorized workers. Jamie Dimon: Lake chose to retire. CFPB is work...