Opinion News from American Banker

The proposal to push up some federal deposit insurance coverage to $10 million per account would encourage banks to take excessive risks while leaving consumers with the bill.

The rise of stablecoins is once again raising questions about the purpose of money, should it be regulated as a public good facilitating commerce, or a private claim to a specific asset?

From private credit to stablecoins, firms with scant oversight have been allowed to gobble up business that formerly went to regulated banks. Until balance is restored, the system is overburdened with risk.

Too often, small fintechs working to bring innovative technology online in the U.S. determine that they would be better off overseas. Regulators should copy existing "sandbox" models to keep them here.

Today, if you own Apple stock, you can't send a few shares to your nephew on his birthday, you can't swap them for Google stock and you can't use them as collateral for a loan. Tokenization will change that.

A former member of Congress and current bank chairman calls on lawmakers to pass several reforms that would allow banks to take back market share that has been lost to nonbank competitors.

Bankers who view the FDIC as their insurance cooperative protecting them rather than a corporation protecting depositors have proposed unwarranted $10 and $20 million FDIC deposit insurance limits. There is a better solution to their concern over big bank competitive advantages.

Crypto is slowly but surely being integrated into the banking applications consumers trust and use every day. It's not the crypto revolution purists imagined, but it's very good news for consumers and bankers alike.

Existing law already provides the tools that would allow an across-the-board upgrade in digital identity verification, with benefits to banks and consumers alike. Regulators are the roadblock.

Policymakers must avoid looking at community banks as institutions of the past that no longer have a place or function in our financial system and stop prioritizing large banks and technology companies.

Noelle Acheson looks at what the outsourcing of stablecoin issuance means for the GENIUS Act, and for our understanding of money.

A proposal to reduce the enhanced supplementary leverage ratio, implemented in the wake of the global financial crisis, risks bringing back the same sort of risky behavior that cratered markets in 2008.

The financial services industry is relying on outdated methods of detecting and fighting fraud. With the assistance of artificial intelligence, criminals are penetrating vulnerable systems. It's time for collective action.

Bankruptcies at First Brands and Tricolor should be a wake-up call for banks exposed to the private credit market. Banks should treat indirect lending to shadow banks as a high-risk activity that demands active oversight.

Community banks are often pressured by regulators to hold significantly higher capital than regulations require, using one-size-fits-all rules of thumb. Well-managed community banks deserve the ability to make the case for lowering their capital levels.

The United States cannot assume its early lead in stablecoins will last. Dollar-pegged tokens dominate today, but Japan's clear regulations and institutional adoption could mean yen stablecoins dominate tomorrow.

There are plenty of ways that lawmakers could help community bankers. Raising federal deposit insurance limits by a factor of 40 isn't one of them.

Reports that JPMorgan is planning to allow the use of crypto collateral against loans are good news for the crypto market. But Noelle Acheson argues that it's even better news for bank lending.

The agency's approval of the stablecoin-focused Erebor will be the first of many applications to open new banks, many focused on nontraditional elements of the business.

Replacing employees is expensive in terms of both time and money. The real management challenge is identifying the drivers of employee churn and eliminating them.