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Iran is charging tolls to cross the Strait of Hormuz, and demanding payment in crypto, which helps it both raise money and evade U.S. sanctions.

The largest banks have increased their venture capital investments in AI startups by 21% over the past two years. They're looking to "co-shape" technology so that it meets their needs.

Cryptocurrencies and stablecoins — popular topics following the passage of the GENIUS Act — got less attention last week from big-bank CEOs.

The annual Diamond Consultants advisor transition tracking study identified the winners and losers of 2025. But it also noted how quickly things can change.

Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf said bankers and economists are broadly against lowering interest rates now, given uncertainty from the Iran war.

Banks are pushing back on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's draft of a five-year strategic plan, which includes a notable pullback from supervising nonbanks.

U.S. banks must navigate conflicting signals as Iran's crypto toll demands and rising pig butchering scams exploit the same stablecoin and correspondent banking rails.

The RTP rail joins FedNow and digital asset firms in the quest to add speed for cross-border settlement.

Slash Financial, a fintech originally founded for sneaker resellers, closed a Series C funding round and launched an AI assistant for digital-native business customers.

The challenge for banks is not whether to adopt AI but how to do so with discipline, judgment and a clear understanding of its limits. The history of technology firms overpromising is extensive in the banking industry.

The government's real-time rail, which had a banner year in 2025, has proposed a way for its members to access settlements for payments that include a party that's outside of the U.S. Payment experts say it removes some of the mud from cross-border real-time payments, but lingering hurdles remain.

The president's nominee for Fed chair should get a hearing, and there will be a lot of questions. What he isn't getting, at least right now, is a vote.

Some litigants are "knuckleheads" but others are real threats, and well-pleaded cases can easily cost companies millions of dollars, TCPA attorney Eric Troutman said.

The former Fed governor's upcoming confirmation hearing will test whether he can satisfy both a president demanding lower rates and a Congress demanding independence.

The Treasury Department terminated the lease for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Washington, D.C., headquarters; HSBC's Gerry Keefe, head of banking in Europe and the Americas, quit to take a role outside of the financial services industry; Deutsche Bank has reported potential sanctions breaches involving Russian clients to German financial regulator Bundesbank; and more in this week's banking news roundup.