Bank Notes

Appearing at a September 2025 New York Fed conference, a panel of institutional investors discuss recent market developments in multifamily affordable housing, highlighting their organizations' trends and strategies. Topics include investment strategies, mission-driven investments, and stability and predictability goals for the investments. Speakers discuss the need for better financial and impact...

Appearing at a September 2025 New York Fed conference, a panel of investment managers discuss institutional investment in multifamily affordable housing. Topics include the challenges of capital flows, preservation, and impact investing. The discussion also covers the importance of community integration, mixed-income housing, and the balance between financial returns and social impact.  For more i...

Jonathan Kivell and Carmi Recto from the New York Fed's Community Development team discuss the evolving role of private capital in multifamily affordable housing, drawing from a  report their team released earlier this year. They highlight the importance of tenant services and the impact of institutional investments on affordability. The discussion also touches on global investments in US affordab...

The work of Community Development Financial Institutions intersects with an initiative led by the New York Fed's Community Development team to connect new sources of capital to community needs. In this episode, we hear from New York Fed President John Williams, Community Development leaders, and lenders, investors, and nonprofit leaders on the question: How can seemingly unrelated problem-solving...

Community Development Financial Institutions can grow out of the communities they serve; a financial version of neighbors helping neighbors. In local and national CDFIs, a sense of personal commitment and connection drives professionals to this work. In this episode, we hear from researchers, borrowers, and lenders about how mission-driven lending, financial inclusion, and technical assistance can...

A small subset of the U.S. financial system called Community Development Financial Institutions, or CDFIs, supports economic growth at the local level. The industry is comprised of different types of institutions operating in different ways. Each works to achieve a common mission: improving economic outcomes for underserved communities. Research from the New York Fed shows the industry is growing...

In this episode, series host Toni Dechario is joined by her Culture initiative colleague Tom Noone. Together, they reflect on how approaches to culture and governance in financial services have shifted over the last decade and highlight key moments from the 2024 annual New York Fed culture conference.  To learn more about the New York Fed's Governance and Culture Reform Initiative,  visit the webs...

Former prosecutor for the Eastern District of New York Evan Norris discusses the FIFA corruption scandal and why his past cases carry lessons for the financial services industry. In this episode he discusses building cultures of strong compliance, and how misconduct can be harnessed as an opportunity for broad-based learning and meaningful improvement.   To learn more about the New York Fed's Gove...

Forensic accounting professor and fraud detective Kelly Richmond Pope describes why and how fraud occurs. In this episode she highlights the importance of clear incentives and discusses her interactive online games designed to help users understand the drivers of fraud and whistleblowing.  To learn more about the New York Fed's Governance and Culture Reform Initiative,  visit the website  for addi...

Joe McGrath and Ciaran Walker, co-authors of the  New Accountability in Financial Services , offer recommendations for promoting accountability through professionalization and the adoption of shared industry norms. In this episode they discuss the role of shared professional identities, moral anchors, and other mechanisms organizations can use to foster individual and group-based accountability. ...

Veterans are 22% more likely to be out of the labor force than comparable nonveterans, according to New York Fed  research  from May 2023.     In this episode, experts working across the military-connected population speak to the reasons behind the participation gap, also debunking some of the most widely held misperceptions surrounding career paths within the military and the outcomes and experie...

In a high stakes environment where mistakes can be catastrophic, how can an organization plan for human error? When does shared expertise within a group prove most valuable, and when might it make more sense to foster cognitive diversity? Why do some after-action reviews successfully establish a consensus-driven vision forward, while others stir up feelings of shame, blame, and guilt? In this epis...

In this episode, behavioral science experts Michael Hallsworth and Scott Young of The Behavioural Insights Team discuss why it's important for organizations to examine their operational frameworks and systems, in order to better assess how established processes and environments may be impacting the work of their employees. They also share recommendations for reducing overconfidence bias, overcomin...

How can organizations avoid reinforcing mistakes or bad behavior? Why is it crucial for upper management to understand the daily realities and social norms at a localized, team-by-team level? And how might removing the pressure surrounding results actually lead to better outcomes, including meaningful systemic improvements? In this episode, behavioral risk expert Wieke Scholten walks us through th...

Cognitive psychologist Gary Klein has spent his career examining how decisions get made across real-world scenarios. He is well-known for creating the PreMortem Method of Risk Assessment , an risk management exercise that helps project team members imagine potential problems upfront, rather than examining shortfalls in hindsight. In this episode, we dig into the how and why of Klein's premortem pr...

What can natural language processing tell management teams about the priorities of their employees? Do assumptions built over time more often lead to successful or unsuccessful outcomes? Does a speaker's choice of words carry more weight for their audience than the substance of what they're saying? Pointing to new developments in linguistics analysis and computational learning, professors Sameer S...

How can co-workers adopting each other's perspective address complex organizational problems? What are the tangible benefits to establishing a psychologically safe environment in the workplace? And why might establishing trust be irrelevant when it comes to ensuring successful collaborations? In this episode, engineer-turned-strategy consultant Per Hugander shares how he's worked with corporate le...

What impact does remote work have on organizational cultures? What causes some corporate responsibility efforts to fall short of meaningful change? And is there a silver bullet to creating a more inclusive workplace culture, effective management, and streamlined operations? Alison Taylor, Executive Director of Ethical Systems at New York University,   articulates some of the biggest questions that...

Mikael Down worked as the Executive Director for Assessment, Policy and Insights at the Financial Services Culture Board, an industry body that assesses culture at financial institutions in the UK and helps to design cultural interventions at member firms. In this episode of "Banking Culture Reform: Norms, Mindsets, and Decision-Making," Mikael shares his perspective on how cultural norms in the U...

Mark Roe is the Head of Risk Culture at the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). With a background in Criminology, he brings a unique perspective to the supervision of governance, behavior and culture. In this episode of "Banking Culture Reform: Norms, Mindsets, and Decision-Making," Mark shares his perspective on why risk culture matters and how organizations can impact decision-mak...

Betsy Levy Paluck is a Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs at Princeton University. She studies the way group norms are shaped and changed, including how social perceptions and networks can be used to influence behavior. In this episode of "Banking Culture Reform: Norms, Mindsets, and Decision-Making," Betsy explains – among other things -- why we're really all just middle schoolers at hear...

David Grosse is responsible for conduct risk, culture and behavior at HSBC Global Banking and Markets. A long-time banker, he became convinced that understanding human behavior was central to understanding what was happening at a bank, and went back to school to earn an MSc in Behavioral Science. In this episode of "Banking Culture Reform: Norms, Mindsets, and Decision-Making," David tells us abou...

Elizabeth "Zab" Johnson is a neuroscientist and the Executive Director of the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania, where she harnesses insights from brain science to help understand and improve business outcomes. In this episode of "Banking Culture Reform: Norms, Mindsets, and Decision-Making," Zab helps us to better understand the neuroscience behind the behaviors an...

Holly Ridings is the Chief Flight Director at NASA, an institution that's spent more than six decades thinking about how culture connects to outcomes. In this episode of "Banking Culture Reform: Norms, Mindsets, and Decision-Making," she talks about putting safety and mission first, the importance of having humility to learn from past mistakes, and how NASA's culture helps directors of human space...

Mark Mortensen is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at INSEAD. He studies collaboration, team dynamics, and communication, with a particular focus on remote and distributed work. In this episode of "Banking Culture Reform: Norms, Mindsets, and Decision-Making," Mark tells us what drew him from engineering to behavioral science, why we can't rely on rules to drive good decisions, an...