The Banker Next Door

Lots of news in the banking world these days. This episode covers stories about bank M&A, 1071 update, new AI tools, De Novo’s, and more. Wells Fargo is delving deeper into trading activities after their asset cap penalty was removed. Lending Club is changing its name to Happen Bank. Sezzle, a buy now, pay later provider, is looking to create a ‘super app.’ Mission Lane applies to become a cre...

Delinquent loans in the Private Credit market continue to go bad as we have two new problems. Medallia, a software maker, can no longer repay about $3 billion in loans. Affordable Care, a dental service company, is in the process of restructuring a $1.4 billion loan to Blackstone and KKR. Overall delinquency in Blackstone’s largest private credit fund has spiked to 2.4% in the first quarter of 202...

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.

According to the Federal Reserve Small Business Credit Survey 2025 small to medium size businesses (SMBs) have some lending gaps. 49% of SMBs have unmet financial needs or experienced a financing shortfall. 46% felt lender requirements were too strict. Business lines of credit remain the most sought-after lending product. Community banks share of SMB lending market has been decreasing over the yea...

Banks received a reprieve at the end of 2025 as decreases in interest rates from the Federal Reserve coincided with a decrease in deposit pricing, helping to improve net interest margins. Banks can’t get complacent as competition is increasing and loan growth, while improving, remains somewhat spotty. Banks will have to make decisions about relationship value as it relates to tighter or looser pri...

Raising capital can be as much an art as it is a science. There are many factors to consider when deciding to raise capital such as the size of your institution, is your bank publicly traded or privately held, do you want to raise capital using debt or equity, if debt will it be senior debt or subordinated debt, and is raising capital cheap or expensive in the current environment? Before you do an...

This episode reviews lists of the largest banks by assets for the U.S., Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa, and the world. What country’s bank has the largest amount of assets in the world? What is the largest bank by assets in Europe? In the U.S.? Did any banks jump up the list in 2025? Understanding who the largest players are in every market is critical to understanding...

This episode is an interview with author Richard Vague. We discuss his new book The Banker Who Made America: Thomas Willing and the rise of the American financial aristocracy. The book details the life of Thomas Willing a banker, merchant trader, and politician who bankrolled the American revolution and then fundamentally shaped the financial architecture of the new republic. Thomas Willing got hi...

This video is a clip from BND: Strategy Room Live Stream on April 25, 2026. The Department of Justice dropped its investigation into Jerome Powell over the cost overruns with the Federal Reserve headquarters project. By dropping the investigation, this should clear the way for Kevin Warsh to be confirmed as the next Federal Reserve chairman. Senator Tom Tillis was holding up the confirmation and w...

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 video is a clip from BND: Strategy Room Live Stream on April 18, 2026. As redemption requests continue to increase for Private Credit funds, Apollo CEO Marc Rowan thinks that ‘everyone is an idiot’. BlackRock is faring better than some of its peers including KKR, Apollo, Blue Owl, and Blackstone. Meanwhile regulators are starting to look hard at the insurance industry and its exposure to Priv...

This is part 40 of the crypto series. In this episode we examine the Trump family crypto drama surrounding their company World Liberty Financial. While Trump family members and other administration figures kids appear to have made out in the company dealings, investors have not fared as well. Justin Sun is one of the crypto investors who is crying foul. In other crypto news, Strategy continues to...

The exodus from Democrat run states and cities continues to increase as they triple down on policies of increasing taxes and regulations. This phenomenon does not happen just in the U.S., it is also affecting places like the U.K. There is nothing that will kill an economy faster than exceedingly high taxes and regulation. This episode goes through a series of articles from Fox Business, CNBC, The...

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a bomb shell report on April 15, 2026 disclosing a massive amount of fraud in the U.S. government. After analyzing data from fiscal years 2018 through 2022, the GAO estimates that the federal government lost between $233 billion and $521 billion ANNUALLY to fraud! The fraud was perpetrated in three main ways. 1) Misuse of Pandemic Relief funds, 2...

Bank M&A activity started 2026 doing okay. Not lighting the world on fire, not bad, just okay. Deal volume in 1Q 2026 slowed to the same level as 1Q 2025 with 36 and 35 transactions respectively. Bank CEOs and executives agree that the window for M&A is still open but geopolitical problems are slowing things down. Many bank CEOs were questioned about potential mergers on 1Q earnings calls....

The FDIC released their state profiles for the 4th quarter of 2025. This series provides quarterly summaries of banking and economic conditions for each state. The FDIC website has a chart of the entire U.S. Click on the state you would like to view, and it gives you a 1-page PDF. Each profile includes the following categories: economic indicators, banking trends, and banking profile. A link to th...

This video is a clip from BND: Strategy Room Live Stream on April 18, 2026. David Sacks, who was the White House AI and crypto czar, has become co-chair of the tech advisory council expanding his role. Mr. Sacks has advocated the White House barrel forward with AI development completely disregarding any associated risks. Last week, Scott Bessent and Jerome Powell called an emergency meeting with e...

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 video is a clip from BND: Strategy Room Live Stream on April 11, 2026. Insurance regulators are concerned about the amount of money major insurance companies have invested in the Private Credit market. In addition, insurance companies may have inflated the valuations of those investments. Where have we seen this before? We also review other related Private Credit news of the week.

This is part 39 of the crypto series. In this episode we examine Bitcoins performance over the last month through a chart and multiple articles. Has Bitcoin found a new resistance level? Will it see continued increases? Has Satoshi Nakamoto been found? Coinbase receives conditional approval from the OCC for a bank trust charter. Franklin Templeton acquires crypto firm 250 Digital to be included in...

Bank Director has released their 2026 Risk Survey. Key findings from the survey include regulatory risk recedes, examiners are learning on the job, cybersecurity oversight, identifying cybersecurity gaps, credit risk concerns, and risk responsibility. Bank are feeling better about being overburdened by bank regulators. They also feel like new bank examiners are inexperienced. Less than 50% of bank...

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon released his 2025 letter to shareholders as part of the bank’s annual report. Mr. Dimon listed five main concerns which include inflation, intensifying competition, Americans’ loss of trust in government, artificial intelligence, and weak allies. Mr. Dimon was critical of Basel III and G-SIB proposals from regulators. In addition, Mr. Dimon has concerns about Private...

Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) was a French provincial scholar.  As a young man, Bastiat was heavily influence by Adam Smith and Benjamin Franklin. He developed profound beliefs in life, liberty, and property rights. His greatest work is a book simply called “The Law”, which was published just before his death in 1850. Bastiat’s grandfather passed away in 1825 leaving him the family estate. He becam...

The sunk cost fallacy is a mindset of continuing onward with an investment or project based on past information even though logic dictates that the outcome will not be favorable. Even when we are faced with flawed reasoning, human nature will not allow us to change course because of aversion to waste and the need to be right. The sunk cost fallacy can occur in both business and government. The sun...

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.