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 Bank of San Francisco's advances to Silvergate Bank, which catered to the cryptocurrency industry, aren't as worrying as the context — the Federal Home Loan Bank System is a systemically critical node of liquidity in the banking system.
January 17 -
Revelations that Silvergate has $4.3 billion in Home Loan bank advances highlight another conduit by which the crypto winter could spread to the broader financial system.
January 10 -
The 118th Congress began today by failing to select a speaker of the House on the first ballot. That doesn't bode well for anything, but especially the federal debt ceiling.
January 3 -
The Wyoming-chartered digital asset bank is mounting a court challenge over how the Federal Reserve issues master accounts to applicants. Whatever happens, the suit will have broad consequences for the central bank and the banking industry.
December 29 -
Two long-awaited developments — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's data access proposal and the Federal Reserve's faster payments network debut — are slated for next year. The combined effect on consumer banking might be more consequential than we now know.
December 27 -
After years of deliberation and controversy, 2022 will be remembered as the year the global financial system replaced the Libor interest rate benchmark, the last vestiges of which sunset in 2023.
December 22 -
The legislation, co-sponsored by six other Republicans, would apply federal lobbying and vacancy rules to regional Federal Reserve banks and close seven of the 12 existing banks.
December 21 -
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., have joined forces to subject regional Fed banks to heightened public scrutiny. How long the coalition lasts depends on what that new scrutiny reveals.
December 13 -
The House of Representatives adopted a defense authorization bill that includes a measure to make it easier for entry-level employees with criminal records to join a bank. Meanwhile, the Senate omitted a pot banking provision from its version of the must-pass spending legislation.
December 8 -
Federal law requires one Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board member to have state bank supervisory experience, but if no one takes that requirement seriously it should be scrapped.
December 6
