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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Vice President Kamala Harris has pledged to build 3 million new housing units over her first term. Rehabilitating vacant housing might be one of the most cost-effective ways to meet that goal — and address many other problems at the same time.
August 27 -
The new president will shape the direction of banking policy, but because financial regulators are more insulated from politics than many other areas, that transition will be gradual.
August 20 -
Keeping control of the Senate in 2024 was always a tall order for Democrats. Republicans thus far are on track to eke out a narrow majority — an outcome that would limit a prospective Harris administration's maneuverability in nominations and legislation.
August 13 -
Instances of check fraud have ballooned in recent years, plaguing banks, and they don't seem to be slowing down. Probably the best thing regulators can do to combat that fraud is to develop an equally inexpensive alternative that is more secure, and FedNow might be that service.
July 30 -
Vice President Kamala Harris has kept a low profile in banking policy, and there is a reasonable expectation that her administration would pick up where Biden left off. But if she wanted to, Harris could reset Democrats' financial policy agenda.
July 23 -
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's term expires in 2026, and the chances are good that he will ride off into the sunset. But there is a path for him to be renominated for a third term, and he's defied long political odds before.
July 16 -
The excision of the Chevron doctrine from administrative law is the crest of a wave of litigative enthusiasm that has been building in the banking industry for years. But defanging the administrative state could also establish binding legal precedents that can cut both ways.
July 2 -
The bankruptcy of fintech middleware provider Synapse has left thousands of customers unable to access their savings, with seemingly no one empowered to put it back in their hands. Regulators and lawmakers need to do something about it, but first they need to talk about it.
June 25 -
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been opposed by the financial services industry to a greater or lesser degree since its inception, and its constitutional legitimacy has now been deeply litigated. The bureau could still be dismantled — just not by the courts.
June 18 -
Illinois' recent move to prohibit the inclusion of taxes and tips in credit card interchange fees suggests that electronic transactions are too expensive and also that there are too many entities working unilaterally to reduce those costs.
June 11
