The Banker Next Door

This episode reviews a research report from Cornerstone Advisors title: The Journey Toward 2030: Becoming a Smarter Bank. The report details 5 pillars that are key to becoming a smarter bank. They include hyper-efficient, data-driven, nimble, differentiated, and opportunistic. The pillars address the biggest challenges banks and credit unions face today, offering a blueprint for the journey toward...

This episode reviews the Federal Reserve Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey (SLOOS) on bank lending practices for April 2025. Some of the key findings of the report include tighter lending standards and weaker demand for C&I loans, unchanged lending standards and weaker demand for CRE loans, and loans for RRE, HELOC, credit cards, and other consumer loans remain tepid. A link to the report is...

This episode reviews a white paper issued by the Independent Community Bankers Association (ICBA) on Industrial Loan Companies (ILCs). This white paper outlines the history of the ILC charter, the growth of the ILC industry, why ILCs are a threat, and finally why the ILC “loophole” should be closed. A link to the report is included below. Link: ilc-white-paper.pdf

This episode reviews the FDIC 2024 Annual Report of Activities. This report details the activities of the Office of the Ombudsman within the FDIC. What is the Ombudsman and what do they do? The Ombudsman serves as a confidential, neutral, independent, and informal liaison for the banking industry and the general public by facilitating the resolution of problems and complaints against the FDIC rela...

This episode reviews the FDIC Risk Review Report for 2025. Some of the key findings from the report include economic conditions remained solid in 2024, banking industry was resilient in 2024 despite the challenges of an inverted yield curve and higher interest rates, market risks continue to challenge the banking industry, and credit risk varied by loan type. The report also covers consumer lendin...

This episode reviews the OCC Interest Rate Risk Statistics Report for Spring 2025. The report shows that smaller financial institutions are very sensitive to an upward movement in interest rates. EVE is also very sensitive to upward interest rate shocks. Larger banks appear to be less sensitive to upward interest rate shocks. Non-maturity deposits could potentially be a problem for large banks, wh...

This episode is a review of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors annual Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2024 report. Some of the key findings from the report include inflation continued to be a top financial concern, the labor market remained solid, people continued to earn money doing gigs, emergency savings measures remained similar to the previous two years, and financial fraud cont...

This episode is a review of the FDIC Quarterly Banking Profile for Q1 2025. For all banks, net income increased from prior quarter, NIM ticked down, asset quality metrics remain generally favorable with a little bit of weakness in certain portfolios, loan growth remained tepid, deposits were up for a third straight quarter, and the DIF reserve ratio increased by 3 bps. A link to the report is incl...

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 Independent Banker Magazine titled “Workplace Culture: A make or break for community bank employees?” The article recommends six ways that a community bank can maintain a strong culture. They include hiring with culture in mind, set cultural expectations, a chance to speak up, reward and recognize, demonstrate empathy, and team efforts start at the top. A link...

This episode examines an article from Independent Banker Magazine titled “Drive efficiency with these 9 back-office upgrades.” The 9 recommendations for increasing efficiency include automate loan exceptions, use RPA to reduce repetitive tasks, establish common sense practices, reduce the use of spreadsheets, get maximum value out of existing solutions, have AI help with the compliance, enable e-s...

This episode examines a report from the National Association of Realtors and Realtor.com titled “Affordability and Homebuilding: State-by-State Report Cards.” This report breaks down, state-by-state, affordability and supply. Some of the key findings focus on income-based affordability gaps, deficit of affordable homes, impact on first-time buyers, state-level disparities, and impact of mortgage r...

This episode examines an article from The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) titled “Why there will never be another Warren Buffett.” The author provides three reasons why there will never be another Warren Buffett: the person, the period, and the package. Warren was a unique individual who was obsessed with studying companies. He was trained by Benjamin Graham, himself a financial legend...

This episode is an interview with Dr. William “Bill” Minnis, who is a former bank CEO of Citizens National Bank of Paris.  This bank was located in Paris, Illinois. We discuss being a bank CEO during a difficult time. What he did and did not like about the job. Things he would do differently, and what advice he would have for someone becoming a bank CEO today. Outside of banking, Dr. Minnis has be...

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 recent report from the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee (TBAC) to the Secretary of the Treasury. This report covers a number of important topics that include projected funding needs, trade policy, longer-term yields in Treasuries, Treasury’s buyback program, conversation on the debt limit, and terms of issuance. This report was released on April 29, 2025. A link to the...

This is part 20 of the crypto series. In this episode we review a presentation that was made by the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee (TBAC) titled “Digital Money.” The Treasury believes that U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins are on track to reach an aggregate market capitalization of approximately $2 trillion by 2028. Links to the Treasury presentation, press release, and Zero Hedge article are...

This episode examines an article from Independent Banker Magazine titled “5 Ways community banks can take advantage of FedNow.” The authors propose 5 steps that community banks can use to adopt FedNow. 1) Lean on third-party providers, 2) Start with a receive functionality, 3) Develop implementation plans, 4) Identify use cases that offer value, and 5) Talk to peers. FedNow continued its growth in...

This episode examines an article from The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) titled “Trump is right about trade imbalances. Does he know how to fix them?” The premise of the article is that economist John Maynard Keynes once proposed a plan back in 1941 that would balance trade imbalances between countries but was not utilized. Trump is looking at adopting a similar plan which has become...

This episode examines an article from Bank Director titled “The tough choice between internal promotions or external hiring.” The best thing a company can do is strike a balance between internal talent development and bringing in external talent. This will allow a bank to build a strong, adaptable leadership team. But beware, there are pros and cons to both strategies and pitfalls all around. A li...

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 19 of the crypto series. In this episode we review the upcoming crypto regulations (Stable Act and Genius Act), The Treasury sees stablecoin having a value of $2 trillion, SOFI bringing back crypto investing, Morgan Stanley adding crypto trading to E*TRADE platform, FDIC, Fed, and SEC permitting banks to engage in crypto-related activities, and crypto firms looking to get bank charter...

This episode examines an article from Bank Director titled “Finding your lane.” There are many possible opportunities out there for banks to develop a niche. They could focus on deposits, cash management and payment channels, or various types of lending. The important thing is for banks to develop expertise in the area they wish to target. Furthermore, banks must be careful not to develop too larg...

This episode examines an article from Bank Director titled “Embracing SBA lending in difficult times.” This article espouses the opportunity that SBA lending can provide to a bank. The article also provides 5 reasons why banks hesitate to provide SBA lending. Understanding why a bank would not want to provide SBA lending is perhaps more information than recognizing the opportunity.  A link to the...

This episode examines an article from Bank Director titled “The cost of flawed capital decisions.” Banks use various metrics to evaluate a transaction. Some of these can include IRR, TBV, and EPS. Do these metrics tell the whole story? The authors lay out 4 foundational principles that bank executives should use when allocating capital. How banks utilize capital is critical to the overall financia...