The Banker Next Door

2025 was a wild year in banking! With all the changes that came this year, it begs the question are we at the precipice of a new era? This episode considers some of the biggest stories of 2025 and reviews major trends that affected the industry. Some of these trends include interest rates, margin pressure, regulatory shifts, M&A, strategic partnerships, digital transformation, payments innovat...

The U.S. labor market went on a very interesting ride in 2025. This episode reviews many of the main headlines which included more Americans find only part-time work, future of ‘low hire, low fire’ US labor stasis wobbles amid mixed signals, AI eliminating entry-level tech jobs, high unemployment for younger workers, labor force participation for youngest male U.S. workers plummets, soaring number...

Bank M&A activity cooled down in the fourth quarter of 2025. Still 2025 has generated 165 bank M&A transactions year to date. This is the largest number of bank M&A transactions since 2021. Not only that, total deal value, assets sold, deposits sold, and median deal value-to-tangible common equity were also the best since 2021. One of the interesting changes at year end is the seeming...

How is commercial real estate (CRE) performing at year end 2025? We take a look at CRE reserves, delinquencies, and how some banks are feeling about their CRE portfolio. Overall, reserves for loan loss allowances are holding steady. CRE loan delinquencies have decreased for 2 consecutive quarters. M&T Bank is feeling pretty good about having a little CRE growth in 2025, while PNC still sees a...

The number of U.S. banks closing branches has hit a 14-year low according to research from S&P Global. The number of bank branches being closed is still outpacing new branches being opened, but the margin has been shrinking over the last 4 years. While many banks are right sizing their footprints, there are some banks that are opening new branches such as PNC and JPMorgan. This episode reviews...

On this day, when we celebrate the birth of the King of Kings, I would like to share three parables from the gospel of Luke about the plight of the rich. These include the rich fool, the rich man and Lazarus, and the rich official. “For to us a child is born, and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace.” – Isaiah 9:6  

Over 20+ health care groups from all over the country have joined with a large number of plaintiffs in a lawsuit against every major health insurance company in America. The lawsuit alleges that the health insurance companies used software from a company named Claritev to create a price-fixing environment that allowed them to siphon billions of dollars from care providers and their patients. The s...

Mosaic, a French high-speed trading firm, recently complained to Eurex and European regulators about other high-speed trading firms using a method in which they bombard an exchange with ‘useless data.’ This maneuver buys them just enough time to react fractionally faster to market-moving information. This move is apparently making certain high-speed firms a lot of money. This episode reviews as ar...

When President Trump declared ‘liberation day’ back in April economists were quick to predict that increased tariffs would ‘wreck the economy’ leading to a recession, increased inflation, and increased unemployment. Eight months later, tariff revenue is flowing in, GDP is strong, inflation has held steady, and the employment market is okay. The world has not ended. Why did economists get it so wro...

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.

This is part 31 of the crypto series. Do Kwon the founder and CEO of Terra Labs, which operated TerraUSD and Luna stablecoins, was found guilty and sentenced to 15-years in prison. The collapse of TerraUSD and Luna coins led to losses of approximately $40 billion dollars, and some believe was the impetus for the Crypto Winter of 2022. Crypto’s biggest players including Michael Saylor and Changpeng...

It seems everyone is getting into the banking space! The OCC is seeing an application boom as they grant conditional approval to Circle, Ripple, Paxos, BitGo Bank & Trust, and Fidelity Digital Assets for national bank trust charters. PayPal applies for a bank charter to open PayPal Bank. Fintech payday lender Enova entered into an agreement to purchase Grasshopper Bank. Three ex-Signature Bank...

Kevin Hassett came out last week saying that he was going to shake things up at the Fed if he is nominated to be the next chair. Well, that didn’t go over so well with Wall Street and the DC establishment. They like the Fed the way it is, meaning working for them! The wagons were circled and the backlash campaign came hard with a big push for either Kevin Warsh or Christopher Waller. Will Hassett...

The OCC has found that nine major U.S. banks ‘debanked’ certain businesses and individuals between 2020 and 2023. The nine banks include JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, US Bank, Capital One, PNC Bank, TD Bank, and BMO Bank. The OCCs report found that these banks restricted assess to the following industries: oil and gas exploration, firearms, coal mining, private prisons, t...

This bonus episode is a clip from the BND: Strategy Room on 12-12-2025. This clip goes through the Federal Reserve statement from 12/11/2025, the 3 dissenting votes, and the reappointing of all Fed Presidents and Vice Presidents, effective March 1, 2026.

This bonus episode is a clip from the BND: Strategy Room on 12-6-2025. This clip goes through various charts showing how the Federal Reserve has reduced its balance sheet over the last few years and the effect this has had on the REPO market. The Fed has created a liquidity crisis which is going to lead to more quantitative easing!

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.

By 2027 half of all e-commerce transactions will go through digital wallets. Community banks need to get their own cards into a customer’s digital wallet before someone else does. It is critical to get your card in the top position in a customer’s digital wallet. Banks can offer several incentives for this, which include cash back, promotions, top-of-wallet rewards, and referral bonuses. It is als...

The First National Bank of Lindsay, Oklahoma was a small $107 million asset bank that was closed in October of 2024. It was the second bank failure of 2024. In 2024, the OCC stated, “after identifying false and deceptive bank records and other information suggesting fraud that revealed depletion of the bank’s capital, the lender was in an unsafe or unsound condition to transact business.” Now the...

This episode looks at 5 community banks from around the country that were honored by Independent Banker Magazine as the best community banks to work for in 2025. The honorees include Bank of Bozeman (Montana), Texas Traditions Bank (Texas), Peoples Bank & Trust (Georgia), Olympia Federal Savings (Washington), and Peoples Bank (Texas). Each bank offers tips on employee development, culture buil...

During budget season the conversation usually goes to cost containment and incremental improvements. However, the most successful community banks invest strategically in infrastructure that creates measurable ROI and sustainable growth. The trick is to identify investments that will lead to operational efficiency and a positive customer experience. Community banks need to think about going from ma...

Back in August, we reported on an M&A issue related to the CECL double count. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has issued an update that changes the accounting for loans acquired in an M&A transaction. This long-awaited fix matters to any bank entering an M&A transaction. This change does not take effect until December 15, 2026, but early adoption is permitted. This epis...

This is a clip from BND: Strategy Room Live Stream from 11-29-2025. This clip looks at recent changes that Robinhood has made on their app and criticism they are receiving.

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.

This is a clip from the BND: Strategy Room Live Stream from 11-29-2025. This clip examines 5 articles on AI looking at how the economy has become dependent on AI, the questionable accounting practices being used, Sovereign AI, Bond sales from AI related companies, and the development of new nuclear power plants.