The Banker Next Door

Bank Director’s 2025 Technology Survey examines decision-making, data strategies, and how banks are using artificial intelligence. Banks are continuing to grapple with data, AI maturity, and technology costs. This episode examines an article from Bank Director titled “2025 Technology Survey: Banks Grapple with data, AI maturity.” Links to both the article and report are included below.  Link: 2025...

Cross-border payments reforms continue to take shape. It is important for community banks to understand opportunities and significant changes in this space. The G20 roadmap continues to take shape around three key areas. 1) Payment system interoperability and extension, 2) Legal, regulatory, and supervisory frameworks, and 3) Cross-border data exchange and message standards. This episode examines...

This episode examines the results from the OCC 2Q 2025 Bank Trading and Derivatives Activities report for banks in the U.S. Bank trading revenue increased $16.6 billion in the 2nd quarter. Derivative notional amounts increased by $13.1 trillion to $223.5 trillion.  Links to the press release and report are included below. Link: OCC Reports Second Quarter 2025 Bank Trading Revenue | OCC Link: Quart...

A new report from NAEP on public school performance in the U.S. shows catastrophic results with 1 in 5 Americans functionally illiterate! The public school system in the U.S. has consumed trillions of dollars only to deliver worse results. This episode examines two articles from the Epoch Times (subscription required) title “Latest education scores reveal failure of regulatory accountability and D...

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.

With the passing of The Genius Act and other potential legislation on the way, Banks will soon have a full regulatory framework around Stablecoins. This new legislation has brought expectations around Stablecoins, with some people seeing major change while others think not much will happen. In this episode we consider myth versus fact by reviewing an article from Bank Director titled “Stablecoins...

National and regional banks have been pulling back on Multifamily lending. Does that create an opportunity for Community Banks? The pullback in lending by the largest banks is due, in part, to higher interest rates on existing debt and tighter liquidity. We consider some tips for Community Banks that could lead to multifamily lending success. This episode reviews a blog post from PCBB titled “Can...

Capital markets are open for banks that need to raise capital, which is great. The question is what will banks use the capital for? Outside of M&A, investors are going to be looking for banks to invest raised capital in ways that will boost a bank’s profitability. At the same time, banks have a lot of pressing needs, particularly with technology. While all these needs are important, they do no...

As interest rates are set to decrease U.S. Treasurys remain a go to investment for income and safety but are there other alternatives? Municipal bonds, agency mortgage-backed securities, and preferred stock are three potential alternatives. An additional consideration, what is better, a tax-exempt municipal bond or a taxable bond?  This episode reviews two articles from The Wall Street Journal (su...

The SBA has launched a new loan program focusing on manufacturers. The 7(a) Manufacturer’s Access to Revolving Credit (MARC) Loan Program will offer working capital to small manufacturers, which make up 98% of all U.S. manufacturers. The 7(a) MARC loans of up to $950,000 will have a 0% up front fee. The MARC loan limit will be $5 million. Reviewed in this episode is an article from The Business Jo...

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.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has unleashed on the Fed in his new article “the Fed’s New ‘Gain-of-Function’ Monetary Policy.” The article discusses the Fed’s potential loss of independence, widening inequality in America, how the Fed’s actions have distorted the market, and ends with a call for reform. This article is monumental and historic. Change is coming to the Fed, whether they like it or...

The U.S. now has over 1 thousand billionaires! This episode looks at who some of these billionaires are, what their net worth is, and where do they live. The information covered in this episode comes from an article in The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) titled “What we know about America’s 1,135 billionaires.”

What is the history of the New York Stock Exchange or NYSE? This episode takes us through the humble beginnings of Wall Street in the 1700’s, through the 1800, 1900, and into the 2000’s. The episode reviews an article from The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) titled “A History of the New York Stock Exchange’s Ups and Downs.”

A new analysis from ICBA shows that Credit Union purchases of community banks do in fact have a harmful economic effect on the communities which they mean to serve. This episode reviews an article from ICBA titled “New Analysis Shows Credit Union Acquisitions of Community Banks Harm the Communities That Can Least Afford It.” The analysis looks at the impact on SBA lending and residential mortgage...

This episode reviews a series of articles from S&P Global Market Intelligence (subscription required) detailing the events of the last week as a potentially massive fraud was uncovered involving a subprime auto lender named Tricolor Holdings. The fraud is alleged because, as of yet, no criminal charges have been filed. The potential losses are currently rippling through multiple banks includin...

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 episode examines a blog post from PCBB titled “Regulatory gaps slow US AI compliance adoption.” The blog post details how U.S. banks are falling behind global peers in adopting AI for compliance purposes. Federal deregulation and a patchwork of state rules seem to be impeding progress.  Also considered is overall AI adoption and how the adoption is high, but disruption is low. Furthermore, co...

This episode examines an article from Independent Banker Magazine titled “4 regulatory challenges community banks face today.” The article considers regulatory challenges that community banks are currently dealing with. The article names 4 primary challenges, which include 1) Navigating an uncertain regulatory environment, 2) Addressing supervisory focus on issue remediation, 3) Establish financia...

This episode examines an article from Bank Director titled “The debanking executive order is here.” Banks should prepare to respond to any potential federal scrutiny concerning relationships that were ended with clients that could be considered conservative-leaning or involved in digital assets. The article breaks down the executive order, considers its legality, and offers five ways banks can pre...

This episode examines Bank Director 2025 Ranking Banking Report. This report is an annual ranking of the 300 largest publicly traded banks. The report ranks the top 25 banks in the U.S. and then breaks down the best banks by total asset size. The categories include $50 billion and above, $5 billion up to $50 billion, and less than $5 billion. Westamerica Bancorp took 1st place for the top 25 banks...

This episode reviews S&P Global Market Intelligence 2025 top banking deposit franchises. The ranking has three categories banks with less than $3 billion in total assets, banks with total assets between $3 billion and $10 billion, and banks with $10 billion or more in total assets. Titan Bank took 1st place for best small community bank deposit franchise. Stride Bank took 1st place for best la...

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 episode examines an article from The Epoch Times (subscription required) titled “The power behind the photo: Why SWIFT, not sanctions, may shape the Ukraine endgame.” Most people are not familiar with the SWIFT system, what it does, and how much power it wields in the flow of global finance. SWIFT – the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication is based in Belgium. While SWI...

This episode examines two articles, one from The Business Journals (subscription required) titled “Real estate commissions are taking a surprising turn after landmark settlement” and one from The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) titled “Why a landmark settlement on realtor fees hasn’t cut costs”. After the landmark real estate industry settlement, it was anticipated that major changes w...