The Banker Next Door

Due to the recent government shutdown, SNAP benefits and the American welfare state came into focus. Massive fraud in the SNAP program was unveiled. A deeper analysis shows a massive growth in the welfare state since the 1960s. It was recently announced that all SNAP recipients will have to reapply in an effort to crack down on fraud. What does the current state of the SNAP program and welfare in...

Latest update on U.S. tariffs and trade news. 

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.

Jeffrey Epstein continues to be a problem for several banks. 

David Danielson is an investment banker and Managing Director at The Kafafian Group. During the interview we discuss factors that will boost bank M&A in 2026, what drives M&A pricing, why larger banks trade at a higher multiple, why interest ‘yield marks’ discourage deals, how big was the equity hit to AFS in 2022, and will we see another wave of bank M&A. David has more than 25 years...

Most banks across the U.S. are facing some level of margin compression. As a result, it is becoming increasingly more important to understand who your most profitable customers are and how you can boost their profitability. This episode reviews an article from Bank Director titled “Figuring out who is profitable and who is not: A banker’s guide” and a report from White Clay titled “Customer Profit...

This episode provides an outlook for 2026 by covering the following topics: sustainability, M&A, supply chain, equities, debt markets, AI, commodities, and private credit markets. This is a sneak peek at what some of the major challenges, issues, and opportunities will be for 2026. This episode reviews a series of article from S&P Global (subscription required) titled “Big Picture 2026”, w...

Another one of those ‘one-off’ events occurred as Blackrock wrote off its entire $150M investment in Renovo Home Partners. Another blowup in the private credit market. In addition, we check in on the ongoing lawsuits and fallout from the First Brands collapse. BDO’s role as the auditor of First Brands. Major U.S. insurers continue to gobble up private credit deals. Wall street’s reaction. Blacksto...

The CRE maturity wall was created by the increase in interest rates from the Federal Reserve starting in 2022. The increase in rates caused banks to ‘extend and pretend’ hoping that the Fed would eventually bring down rates making it easier to renew and roll over existing CRE loans. This action pushed CRE maturities out to 2025 through 2027. The CRE maturity wall continues to shift with 2026 now b...

This is a clip from the BND: Strategy Room Live Stream from 11-1-2025. This clip provides an update on the Private Credit Market. Blackrock had another of those "one-off" delinquencies.

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 can bank board’s properly understand and implement AI? This episode looks at a blog post from PCBB which discusses the challenge for bank board’s in understanding AI and what they can do to strengthen their skills. In addition, we consider an article from Bank Director which dives into how bank board’s can develop AI algorithms to create fairness, accuracy, and appropriate risk appetite for th...

Many Community Banks around the U.S. focus on niche lending products to grow their business and build strong relationships with their customers and communities. This episode looks at three such banks. First Guaranty Bank focuses on commercial leasing. Bell Bank focuses on nonprofit lending. Georgia Banking Company focuses on ESOP lending. Every Community Bank should focus on creating a niche for i...

Bank investment portfolios were hit hard when the Federal Reserve increased interest rates a few years ago leading to negative AOCI and unrealized losses in their bond portfolio. Should banks sell those underwater securities to reposition their existing investments for positive income? The answer, it depends. This episode examined an article from Bank Director titled “Selling bonds at a steep loss...

Citi just rolled out their new rewards card named Strata Elite to compete with AMEX and Chase. Unfortunately, the rollout did not go according to plan as a number of customers were locked out of their accounts and have not been able to utilize the card much less realize the benefits. This episode examined an article from The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) titled “They signed up for Ci...

The Federal Reserve, OCC, and FDIC are all working on slimming down exam requirements for Community Banks. Some of the potential changes include regulatory actions such as “matters requiring attention,” scrapping any requirements that are not found in law or regulation, increasing the existing threshold from $10 billion to $30 billion, changing what pre-exam documentation is required, and tailorin...

Chad Hull, Investment Banker, with Janney Montgomery Scott returns to discuss the current bank M&A market. Chad and I discuss some of the large banking M&A transactions recently announced. We consider the pickup in M&A activity throughout 2025 and what changes are driving the uptick. Chad provides his thoughts on why the activity could be sustained into 2026. In addition, Chad talks ab...

Banking regulators are considering deposit insurance reform to better protect consumers and businesses. Congress is also considering deposit insurance reform through a proposed act titled the Main Street Depositor Protection Act (S.2999). The question is, who will the deposit insurance reforms really benefit? Is this reform focused on consumers and businesses or billionaires? This episode examines...

According to an FBI report, bank robberies in the U.S. have declined from a high of approximately 9,500 in 1992 to less than 1,400 in 2023. Why have bank robberies decreased? This episode reviews are article from Investopedia titled “The death of the bank heist: Where have all the bank robbers gone?” This article presented five theories, 1) not a big enough payout, 2) fewer targets, 3) easier to g...

A war of sorts has broken out between Fair Isaac and the three credit reporting bureaus (Trans Union, Equifax, and Experian) over pricing and usage of the FICO credit scoring model. This episode examines how American’s overall credit scores are performing, how rental payments can be used to improve consumer credit scores, and the effects on consumers of the FICO dispute. This episode reviews multi...

The U.S. auto industry is currently dealing with a myriad of problems that include a pull back on electric vehicles, tariffs, a fire at aluminum producer Novelis, underwater car trade-ins, concentration of purchasing by the wealthy, subprime delinquency, and microchip issues with Dutch (CCP controlled) company Nexperia. Some of these issues will be solved faster than others but the auto industry,...

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 BND: Strategy Room bonus episode from the 10-25-2025 live stream. This episode details the current subprime auto industry crisis, which has seen the recent failures of Tricolor Holdings, First Brands, and now Primalend. A number of banks have gotten ensnared in this crisis.

Dan Knezevich has been a commercial appraiser for over 30 years. Dan’s background in appraising commercial properties is extensive. We discuss the different valuation methodologies, pricing for commercial appraisals, what constitutes a commercial property, valuing different property types, and other services his firm provides. Dan is the President of Quest Realty Advisors, LLC (“QRA”) a full-servi...

Erebor bank earns preliminary government approval to proceed as a new startup bank. Erebor is seeking to target many of the same customers from Silicon Valley Bank. The approval for Erebor follows a wave of other companies and startups seeking to become banks. This episode examined articles from The Wall Street Journal and S&P Global Market Intelligence, both require subscriptions. The Wall St...