The Banker Next Door

Bank News: FDIC outlines 5 potential changes that it is considering. Fed Governor Michael Barr is concerned about deregulation. FinCen is directing banks to report suspicious activity around customers immigration status following a recent EO. JPMorgan sees a longer timeline to Agentic AI usage by retail customers. Senator Warren blasts Goldman Sachs CEO for keeping disgraced legal council as and “...

This video is a clip from BND: Strategy Room Live Stream on June 13, 2026. What are tokens? How do companies purchase AI usage through tokens? How are tokens valued from a dollar perspective? These are important questions to understand as the AI price wars have begun. Anthropic and OpenAI have both filed for an IPO, but will they make it? The government forced Anthropic to put the brakes on some o...

This video is a clip from BND: Strategy Room Live Stream on June 13, 2026. The SpaceX IPO has taken flight delivering approximately $75 billion in fresh capital and a $2 trillion dollar valuation. This clip looks back at SpaceX’s beginnings in 2002 and the journey that brought them to today. Elon’s goal was to spark people’s imagination and get them invested in space again. He achieved that and so...

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.

Metropolitan Capital Bank & Trust (MCB) failed in January 2026. I covered the failure in a previous episode, but this episode covers the FDIC Office of Inspector General (OIG) report that reviews what they believe caused the failure. The ongoing problems at MCB have been documented. The OIG report concluded that bad loans from poor internal oversight, governance, and risk management led to cri...

Is the Private Equity industry destroying our economy and thus capitalism? This is a very deep question that cuts to the very heart of what is ailing our economic system. Small business owners don’t want to grow their companies anymore; they just want to sell. There is no thought of building for the next generation, there is only the unicorn status, possible IPO, and then the sale. Private Equity...

Prominent Wall Street short seller Andrew Left was convicted of securities fraud on June 1st. Prosecutors alleged that Mr. Left used his TV appearances and website, Citron Research, to make certain assumptions about various stocks and then match these comments to his own trading positions. The problem is, he would use these tactics to pump up the stocks, while at the same time placing trades in th...

The FDIC Quarterly Banking Profile covers key financial activity for the banking industry, community banks, and the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF). For the 1Q 2026, Net Income rose, Net Interest Margin decreased, loan growth continued, domestic deposits increased for the seventh consecutive quarter, and asset quality metrics remained generally favorable. Additionally, provision expense rose from the...

Bank News: CFPB orders all remote workers to return to DC headquarters by August 31st. CFPB directs BILT Technologies to reimburse any customers affected by card transition. CFPB faces lawsuit over Regulation B rule change. California judge rules in favor of OppFi. LendingClub sees a learning curve for fintechs that are seeking a bank charter. First National bank buys Blue Ridge Bancshares. OceanF...

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.

The Department of Labor recently reported that the labor force participation rate for prime age men (age 25 to 54) dropped to 66%! About 1/3rd of men or approximately 7 million have dropped out of the labor force all together. This is a shocking statistic. There is no doubt that the country, overtime, will feel the absence of these men in a very profound way. The big question right now is how did...

As consumer usage of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) continues to increase, should banks consider offering this product for their customers? 50 million consumers have used BNPL over the last 12 months. Total transaction value increased to $70 billion in 2025. Problems with BNPL persist. There are concerns with consumers around delinquency and behavior finance issues. There are considerations internally...

This episode is an update on Private Credit. The failure of U.K. mortgage lender MFS continues to ripple through markets as banks and financial firms in the U.K. and the U.S. sustain losses. Investors should be very careful about buying shares of Business Development Companies (BDCs) because what may seem like a bargain but could be a disaster. Banks lending to NDFIs decreased in the 1Q of 2026. R...

We have all seen the movie It’s a Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart. Jimmy plays the President of a small savings and loan bank and in one of the pivotal scenes of the movie he prevents a bank run by talking to the customers and explaining how the bank works. Bank runs have been prevalent in the U.S. since the founding of the country as noted in various panics throughout the 19th and 20th centurie...

The FDIC released a report titled “Dissecting Depositor Flight: An analysis of the Spring 2023 Bank Failures.” This report is about the three regional banks that failed during the Spring banking crisis of 2023. The three banks in question include Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank (FRB). This report sought to examine the deposit flow of each back and attempts to det...

Banks are constantly challenged in the fintech era, not with loosing accounts, but with maintaining day-to-day financial engagement. Consumers continue to diversify away from bank offerings to multiple fintech platforms, mainly for P2P payments and digital wallets. Bank’s share of the financial relationship with fintechs is shrinking. Speed, flexibility, and control are the main items that custome...

Bank News: Standard Charter CEO Bill Winters apologized for his ‘lower-value human capital’ remarks that he made about his employees. Flagstar CEO Joseph Otting will stay until 2028 when a successor will be named. Federal Reserve and FDIC approve US banks’ living wills. Senator Warren wants charter details from OCC. Jay Gould justifies conditional trust charter approvals. Senator Warren questions...

The CAMELS rating system is used by bank regulators to assess a financial institution. The rating system evaluates six key factors – capital adequacy, asset quality, management, earnings, liquidity, and sensitivity. Banks are then rated on a scale of 1 (Best) to 5 (Worst). This scale helps examiners to determine which banks require closer supervision because of poor performance. The CAMELS framewo...

What has AI unleashed on the banking industry? Anthropic’s development of Mythos has sent shockwaves through banking executives. Palo Alto Networks tech chief Lee Klarich sees a small window before hackers begin to use programs like Mythos to launch attacks against software vulnerabilities. Banks should consider this a wake-up call. Think about your current platforms and technology stacks. Conside...

Customers Bank CEO Sam Sidhu caused quite a stir when he used an AI clone for the first 25 minutes of the bank’s most recent earnings call to provide prepared remarks. Mr. Sidhu was trying to display how adept the bank has become at using AI technology. Mr. Sidhu showed how the bank has been able to deploy AI and decrease the efficiency ratio from 62% in 2024 to 49% in 2026. Mr. Sidhu is also hopi...

This video is a clip from BND: Strategy Room Live Stream on May 24, 2026. The American citizen is revolting against AI. From the job losses to the data centers being put in our back yards to the amount of overall danger posed from this new technology, Americans are pushing back. President Trump pulled his executive order on AI due to a split in his administration over how tightly AI development sh...

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.

The Financial Stability Report is the Fed’s current assessment of the stability of the U.S. financial system. The Fed seeks to assess vulnerabilities using four broad categories, which include asset valuations, borrowing by businesses and households, leverage in the financial sector, and funding risks. Asset valuations remain elevated. Vulnerabilities from business and household debt remained mode...

With Jerome Powell existing and Kevin Warsh coming in as the new Fed Chair, he must walk a tight rope across an already strenuous economy. Is the situation hopeless? This seems a fair question given that any action the Fed takes could lead to dire circumstances. Inflation remains elevated, fiscal debt and deficits are out of control, yields are rising in the bond market to compensate for these ris...

Jerome Powell’s tenure as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve is coming to an end after 8 years. What has he left us? To say he has left us a mess would be an understatement. The Fed has lost approximately $240B in the last three years. The Fed has unrealized losses in their bond portfolio around $1T. Inflation remains well above the Fed 2% target. Powell has NEVER brought inflation below 2% in hi...