The Banker Next Door

Kevin Hassett came out last week saying that he was going to shake things up at the Fed if he is nominated to be the next chair. Well, that didn’t go over so well with Wall Street and the DC establishment. They like the Fed the way it is, meaning working for them! The wagons were circled and the backlash campaign came hard with a big push for either Kevin Warsh or Christopher Waller. Will Hassett...

The OCC has found that nine major U.S. banks ‘debanked’ certain businesses and individuals between 2020 and 2023. The nine banks include JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, US Bank, Capital One, PNC Bank, TD Bank, and BMO Bank. The OCCs report found that these banks restricted assess to the following industries: oil and gas exploration, firearms, coal mining, private prisons, t...

This bonus episode is a clip from the BND: Strategy Room on 12-12-2025. This clip goes through the Federal Reserve statement from 12/11/2025, the 3 dissenting votes, and the reappointing of all Fed Presidents and Vice Presidents, effective March 1, 2026.

This bonus episode is a clip from the BND: Strategy Room on 12-6-2025. This clip goes through various charts showing how the Federal Reserve has reduced its balance sheet over the last few years and the effect this has had on the REPO market. The Fed has created a liquidity crisis which is going to lead to more quantitative easing!

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.

By 2027 half of all e-commerce transactions will go through digital wallets. Community banks need to get their own cards into a customer’s digital wallet before someone else does. It is critical to get your card in the top position in a customer’s digital wallet. Banks can offer several incentives for this, which include cash back, promotions, top-of-wallet rewards, and referral bonuses. It is als...

The First National Bank of Lindsay, Oklahoma was a small $107 million asset bank that was closed in October of 2024. It was the second bank failure of 2024. In 2024, the OCC stated, “after identifying false and deceptive bank records and other information suggesting fraud that revealed depletion of the bank’s capital, the lender was in an unsafe or unsound condition to transact business.” Now the...

This episode looks at 5 community banks from around the country that were honored by Independent Banker Magazine as the best community banks to work for in 2025. The honorees include Bank of Bozeman (Montana), Texas Traditions Bank (Texas), Peoples Bank & Trust (Georgia), Olympia Federal Savings (Washington), and Peoples Bank (Texas). Each bank offers tips on employee development, culture buil...

During budget season the conversation usually goes to cost containment and incremental improvements. However, the most successful community banks invest strategically in infrastructure that creates measurable ROI and sustainable growth. The trick is to identify investments that will lead to operational efficiency and a positive customer experience. Community banks need to think about going from ma...

Back in August, we reported on an M&A issue related to the CECL double count. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has issued an update that changes the accounting for loans acquired in an M&A transaction. This long-awaited fix matters to any bank entering an M&A transaction. This change does not take effect until December 15, 2026, but early adoption is permitted. This epis...

This is a clip from BND: Strategy Room Live Stream from 11-29-2025. This clip looks at recent changes that Robinhood has made on their app and criticism they are receiving.

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 clip from the BND: Strategy Room Live Stream from 11-29-2025. This clip examines 5 articles on AI looking at how the economy has become dependent on AI, the questionable accounting practices being used, Sovereign AI, Bond sales from AI related companies, and the development of new nuclear power plants.

This episode reviews the Federal Reserve Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey (SLOOS) on bank lending practices for October 2025. Some of the key findings of the report include tighter lending standards and stronger demand for C&I loans, unchanged lending standards and demand for CRE loans. Loan standards for residential mortgage loans including HELOCs remained unchanged, but banks did report hi...

The federal bank regulatory agencies, as members of FFIEC, released data on small business, small farm, and community development lending during 2024. CRA regulations require the agencies to annually disclose this data. The data collected showed 731 reporting lenders in 2024. The lenders made 9.1 million small-business loans totaling approximately $276 billion. This was an 8.1% increase in number...

This is a clip from the BND: Strategy Room Live Stream from 11-29-2025. This clip provides an update on the Federal Reserve and the current liquidity issues in the REPO market.

This episode examines a research report from CSBS titled “Too small to scale: What 10 years of data say about community bank compliance costs.” The report found that smaller banks reported spending 11% to 15.5% of their payroll on compliance tasks, compared with 6% to 10% for the largest banks. Data-processing costs consume 16.5% to 22% of small banks’ budgets versus 10% to 14% for larger banks. C...

This episode examines Bank Director’s 2026 Bank M&A Survey. Bank Director found that “the gap between buyers’ and sellers’ pricing expectations may be closing as potential acquirers look for ways to add low-cost deposits.” Some of the key findings revolve around boardroom discussions, angling for a better price, mixed plans on subordinated debt, organic growth drivers, limited interest in Cryp...

This episode reviews a recent working paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco titled “What is a Tariff Shock? Insights from 150 years of Tariff Policy.” The main finding of the report is that Tariffs are deflationary! “We find that a tariff hike raises unemployment (lowers economic activity) and lowers inflation.” With all the focus on Tariffs this year, this report is a must see! A l...

This is a clip from the BND: Strategy Room Live Stream from 11-29-2025. This clip reviews recent retail sales data and takes a look at how sales are performing on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.

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.

America’s farm system is in trouble. Parts of it are collapsing in real time. Over regulation is crushing small farmers. An Idaho farmer named Steve Jarvis has a plan. It entails wiping out every farmer’s debt! Very radical, but he might be on to something. Any bank or banker that is involved with agricultural lending should listen to this episode. If your state is highly dependent on agriculture,...

This BND: Strategy Room Bonus episode is an update on mortgages and housing. This clip is from the BND: Strategy Room Live Stream from 11-15-2025.

Envy is one of the seven deadly sins. Envy is defined as the intense desire to have an item or quality that someone else possesses. Envy is at the very heart of socialism. The recent creep in the U.S. toward socialism politically is very troubling. The U.S. has been here before in the 1930’s during the great depression. History has proven that socialism does not have the answers to economic proble...

The way we dress conveys a message about how we see ourselves and others. Seeing people ‘dressed up’ is becoming increasingly rare. At the same time, the clothes we wear speak volumes about us.  In business, clothes are essential to how you appear to others. How you carry yourself, how other people view you, how seriously you are taken. In society, clothes give us many clues into the mental health...