John Heltman is the Washington Bureau Chief for American Banker. John previously edited American Banker Magazine and is the creator of American Banker's narrative podcast Bankshot. He was awarded the Grand Neal, the top honor bestowed by the Jesse H. Neal Awards, in 2019 for his narrative podcast series Nobody’s Home, which examines the economic and social impact of concentrated vacant housing. He was also named the 2019 McAllister Editorial Fellow at Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He is a 2005 graduate of St. Mary’s College of Maryland and lives in Baltimore, Md.
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The Federal Reserve's much-awaited Basel III proposal would raise capital significantly for the largest banks, a move that neither the international agreement nor the moment requires. Somehow that square is going to get circled.
August 1 -
With the introduction of FedNow, the Federal Reserve is out of good reasons not to mandate that banks process payments by the fastest means available.
July 25 -
A lack of affordable starter homes, increasing homelessness and stubbornly high prices for the homes that already exist have created a pickle that only careful planning and political buy-in can solve.
July 18 -
The biggest of the big banks don't like the Federal Reserve's new vision for bank capital, but the changes will hurt their regional peers more. Once again, the advantage lies with the megabanks.
July 11 -
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco president Mary Daly insisted that supervisory failures that contributed to the downfall of Silicon Valley Bank were reflective of directives handed down from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and made the case for 'agility' in bank supervision.
July 10 -
Synthetic fraud — which combines real and false identifying information — has been a niche variety of identity theft for some time. But recent advancements in artificial intelligence and people's access to it might bring it into the mainstream in a big way.
July 4 -
The Federal Reserve's highly anticipated stress tests indicate that all banks are sufficiently capitalized to weather an economic downturn, but midsize banks were among those with the lowest minimum capital levels.
June 28 -
The Federal Reserve gave itself the power to raise capital requirements when risks are elevated to ensure banks can lend through the business cycle. But the rule hasn't been used, and it isn't clear it could ever work in practice.
June 27 -
Banks and credit unions have come out against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's proposal to cut credit card late fees to $8, saying that figure is too low to cover costs. Finding a more suitable number might save the bureau a lot of trouble.
June 20 -
Just as the United States is getting good news in its war against inflation, the picture is very different across the pond. Some of that is bad luck, but there are lessons on what not to do as well.
June 13
