News and Information from American Banker

The Senate passed a bipartisan housing package, which includes certain community bank provisions, in an 85-5 vote. The House is set to vote on the package Wednesday.

The former New York governor will chair a new effort aimed at tokenizing financial products on chain and bringing 24/7 digital trading to NYSE-listed assets.

The service is an alternative to an IPO or a special-purpose vehicle, the bank says.

The company's forthcoming stablecoin, PAYO-USD, is designed to spur increased transaction volume revenue rather than interest income on reserves, a model championed by most stablecoin issuers.

The Bank of England's new guidance changes restrictions following criticisms and concerns about U.S. dominance.

Part of the proposal affects the risk weighting for certain "investment properties and other cashflow-dependent" mortgages, according to a new Pennymac report.

William Isaac led the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. through the banking and thrift crises of the 1980s and was a frequent commentator on bank regulation after his time in public service.

The longtime Federal Reserve chair served under four presidents and presided over the deregulatory and pro-market push of the 1990s and early 2000s that set the stage for the 2008 mortgage crisis.

The supposedly noble heritage of the National Bank Act and the federal preemption power that goes along with it has never stood up to serious scrutiny.

The child of a slave grew up to become the first woman to open a bank in the U.S., and pioneered community banking for Black communities.

Life insurers have offloaded long-term policyholder liabilities into offshore reinsurance and captive subsidiaries, raising concerns over state oversight of opaque investment vehicles and whether insurers have adequately funded claims.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals halted the Trump administration's attempt to fire nearly two-thirds of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's workforce, upholding a March 2025 injunction.

JPMorganChase wants to expand its digital bank offerings to three more European countries, according to a new Financial Times report; M&T Bank Corp. elects Jerry Jacobs Jr. to the board of directors of both its parent and banking subsidiary; Citizens Financial Group names Chris Emerson as head of investor relations; and more in this week's banking news roundup.

Banks that don't embrace embedded payments now risk losing out to more nimble rivals in the near future.

Credit unions have a long history of serving diverse members. In a climate where programs designed to promote diversity, equity and inclusion are under constant attack, they should double-down on that commitment.

Anthropic's head of banking told New York Banking Summit attendees that the future is agents that operate autonomously alongside employees.

Chair Travis Hill said SVB showed banks can't always sell securities fast enough to cover deposit outflows, but acknowledged the "stigma problem" with discount window borrowing remains unsolved.

At a conference in New York, Joseph Otting reflected on the difficult hiring decisions he made early in his tenure heading Flagstar Bank, which just two years ago was on the verge of collapse.

Back-office automation fintech BILL Holdings is using JPMorgan Payments white-label digital wallet to subledger its own clients' accounts. Reconciling client payments for BILL's corporate card, the BILL Divvy Card is the company's first use case.

Like the Olympics, the event is used to push and measure engagement and appetite for emerging checkout options.

The Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and federal banking and credit union agencies limited issuers' know-your-customer obligations to direct-to-consumer services, preliminarily rejecting a "global" customer due diligence requirement they say is unfeasible. 

The bank is following in the footsteps of Goldman Sachs, which made a similar move in April.

A potential deletion from a long-standing regulatory definition has banks questioning how to classify vast swaths of their lending books.

At least nine Dallas-area institutions have agreed to sell themselves since late 2024, with the Oklahoma City-based MidFirst Bank's deal for Dallas Capital marking the latest transaction.

As the capital rule's comment period closes, some experts express concern about proposed changes that may impact nonbanks reliant on warehouse financing.

As banks have adopted multifactor customer authentication systems, they have inadvertently made it more difficult for many disabled customers to access their accounts. The fix is less complicated than it appears.

Guidance documents from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network heightening bank scrutiny of individual tax identification numbers in mortgage applications could discourage banks from issuing those kinds of loans.

The newly minted Fed chairman announced working groups for his five top policy priorities and strictly refrained from forward guidance in his debut press conference Wednesday afternoon.

The Cincinnati bank has launched a navigational aid to help customers get to what they need in fewer steps.

The state would join New York in governing the up-and-coming credit product. Industry and consumer advocacy groups say there's still room for improvement.

The clarification spells out what banks can share to stop scams. The Bank Policy Institute welcomed it but wants Congress to write the protection into law.

The payment company is "exploring options" for PayPal Ventures as new CEO Enrique Lores tries to reverse an earnings slump.

The Spanish banking giant's pending acquisition of Webster Financial is still awaiting approval from the Federal Reserve Board and the European Central Bank. The deal is expected to close during the second half of 2026.

As the Ohio-based bank absorbs a pair of banks in Texas, it's also enhancing its ability to quickly move larger sums for business clients.

Kristin Milchanowski, the bank's chief AI and data officer, shared some of her AI leadership do's and don'ts at American Banker's Digital Banking Conference.

Regulators have suggested changes to the ratings system they use to gauge banks' safety and soundness that would reduce scrutiny of management quality. It would leave them blind to clear signs of future problems.

The new Fed chair takes his seat for the first time but may find it was easier to be an outside critic than inside leader.

A collaboration between the bank and Edward Jones was honored as American Banker's top 2026 Innovation of the Year at the Digital Banking Conference.

The first bipartisan, bicameral housing compromise includes a suite of community banking provisions long sought by the industry.

The fintech's recently installed U.S. CEO said at American Banker's Digital Banking conference that Revolut's goal is to become "the first truly global bank."

Isabella Bancorp in Mount Pleasant to enter the Grand Rapids market with $54.6 million purchase of Grand River Commerce in Grandville.

Newly minted Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh will host his inaugural press conference on Wednesday. Bankers will be paying close attention to what he says — and how he says it.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's annual report to Congress asks for enforcement and referral powers beyond the limited ones it currently has.

The fintech joins a handful of fintechs and payments companies that have laid off staff this year. Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said the decision was proactive to keep the organization lean.

Rithm and UWM Holdings are the favorite names among publicly traded lenders, while BTIG adds coverage of Better Home & Finance at a buy rating.

Two industry leaders at American Banker's Digital Banking conference said banks' fraud and identity controls weren't built for software acting as the customer.

Zelle, Western Union, SoFi and others are all launching stablecoins, adding to the thousands of other digital assets that do essentially the same thing as bitcoin.

Banking and fintech trade groups have filed suit against the State of Oregon over a new lending law that they say unlawfully restricts interest-rate exportation by out-of-state state banks and threatens access to credit.

The Atlanta bank was ordered to pay nearly $80 million to the former head of its equipment-finance subsidiary Balboa Capital

BofA is using an old-school method to battle the world's newest scams: in-person seminars, taught at brick-and-mortar branches.

A value resurgence will overtake growth-stock dominance — the catalysts are already in motion, says Bernard Horn of Polaris Capital Management.

Regulators have signaled that the speed of progress in generative and agentic artificial intelligence makes producing definitive guidance impractical. That does not remove banks' obligation to face up to their risks.

Stephen J. Scott, an investigator hired to audit the Federal Reserve's handling of Silicon Valley Bank before its collapse, says the probe is focused on "facts, not politics." But more than three years on, the biggest question surrounding the U.S.'s second most costly bank failure for many is who bears the blame.

The big moves hit the Swiss firm as it continues to lose advisors on a net basis — though now it's reportedly sweetening its recruiting offers.

The digital banking fintech expects to reach profitability this year as it recovers from a post-2021 valuation drop with three consecutive years of growth.

As funding questions persist for Social Security and Medicare Part A, speakers at the recent AICPA conference discussed how advisors can guide clients through complex benefit rules and options.

National Capital Bank, founded in 1889, and Old Dominion National Bank, founded in 2007, are combining with plans to take the merged entity public.

Early Warning Services' peer-to-peer payment platform Zelle is launching its own stablecoin, ZLUSD, which will allow it to open its network to remittances abroad. India will be the first country.

As competition for diners' spending heats up, the card company agreed to pay $700 million for the European reservation and management platform.

A letter released publicly from the Government Accountability Office on Monday underscored previously raised concerns about the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s lack of "rotation" requirements for case managers on bank supervisory teams.

Analysts say Payoneer is an attractive addition in a market where fast-moving developments in international payments, AI and digital assets are pressuring payment companies to scale quickly.

Despite predictions of mass white-collar job losses from AI, two major firms have chosen the "human plus AI" approach.

Fiserv's former CEO Michael Lyons has left the technology seller to become CEO of Truist Financial 18 months after taking the job. Takis Georgakopoulos will assume the financial technology seller's top job.

The North Carolina-based regional has recruited Michael Lyons to serve as CEO, starting Sept. 1. Lyons will replace Bill Rogers, who plans to retire in April 2027.

How verification tools will change the retail experience, according to Umar Farooq, Global Co-Head of Payments at J.P. Morgan.

How J.P. Morgan Payments is fighting a growing tidal wave of scams.

How J.P. Morgan Payments is dealing with smart contracts and using a public blockchain.

When a bank thinks of itself as a tech company, a new set of opportunities and challenges becomes clear.

Real-time payments are only one component, Umar Farooq said.

As new payment rails come online, Umar Farooq says, the bank hopes to edge out competitors.

Multiple states are testing the ability of federal banking regulations to preempt state laws. If they succeed, a core pillar of the U.S. economy — the dual banking system — could begin to crumble.

The DTCC is building out a blockchain-based platform for post-trade processing and custody; if it works, it will mean a significant rewiring of the markets.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, the mammoth clearinghouse for all Wall Street trades, is building the ability to let securities morph into digital assets, and to track them in perpetuity.

Balance sheet reduction is a top priority of new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh. Achieving that goal means avoiding the kinds of disruptions that roiled the Treasury bond market in 2019, the last time the central bank embarked on quantitative tightening.

The government said it was responding to a jailbreaking risk that Anthropic says is minimal.

Lawmakers from both parties defended regional Federal Reserve banks against potential consolidation, arguing local economic perspectives are essential to ensure monetary policy remains sound.

The same groups want the Securities and Exchange Commission to drop its breach-disclosure rule while asking Congress to keep a confidential threat-sharing law.

The Dutch payment processor has agreed to acquire artificial intelligence-powered fintech biller Orb, its second acquisition in three months in an effort to speed development.

City National Bank appointed longtime executive David Cameron as chief operating officer; JPMorganChase is selling a limited-edition Lego version of its new midtown Manhattan headquarters; Esquire Financial Holdings received regulatory approval to complete its acquisition of Signature Bank in Chicago; and more.

CEO Lynn Harton said his Greenville, South Carolina-based bank struggled the past year to keep Navitas from overshooting the limit the bank set for its expanding portfolio, about 10% of total loans.

The megabank has completed the sale of its consumer banking business in Poland. It has now sold 10 retail-focused franchises in certain underperforming, international markets over the past five years.

Visa and Mastercard are making it easier for AI agents to make autonomous payments within large language models, while fintechs such as Robinhood and Coinbase are opening their doors to those same agents to keep customers within their ecosystem. Payment experts say that puts banks on the defensive.

The bank has decided it doesn't want to be at the mercy of tech companies and the price they demand for services, and is building its own "AI factory."

Tokenization of assets is going to transform global finance, but by dragging their heels on establishing clear rules of the road, U.S. regulators could be pushing the development of key infrastructure overseas.

Regulators are not requiring banks to verify customer citizenship under a May executive order, which is a relief for banks. But how a new Fincen-led guidance will shift compliance expectations remains unclear, especially for smaller banks.

Federal prosecutors arrested and charged Mahender Makhijani, 44, with orchestrating a $100 million bank fraud against Western Alliance Bancorp.

Federal prosecutors have sought records and account closure data from banks as the Trump administration continues to clash with the industry.

The super-regional bank is increasingly building AI on its own. The point, CEO Bill Demchak said this week, is not just to foster innovation but to protect the bank from rising costs.

The blockchain fintech acquired the real estate lender through a joint venture to tokenize housing loans and test its new AI-powered onboarding agent.

With the big card networks and Coinbase pushing the new form of artificial intelligence, the blockchain company is offering a tool kit to enable AI agents to perform transactions.

A federal judge let fraud claims against Meta proceed, finding its AI ad tools may have helped build ads that impersonated a Bank of America executive.

Oklahoma City-based BancFirst agreed to pay an undisclosed sum for SpiritBank. The deal comes just seven months after the buyer completed another in-state acquisition.

There's value in having money in one place, but some 401(k) rules make rollovers more trouble than they're worth.

Banking Committee Democrats warned that the Trump administration's failure to nominate Democrats to vacancies at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Securities and Exchange Commission and National Credit Union Administration threatens the bipartisan structure Congress established for financial regulators.

Independent Community Bankers of America is launching a new campaign comparing community banks with crypto companies, and highlights potential harm that the latter could pose to Main Street.

Plans to allow U.S. banks to reduce the capital they hold create uncomfortable echoes of past turmoil in credit markets. As regulators contemplate relaxing standards meant to protect the public, they should look to past financial crises.

How much of the FOMO is manufactured?

Rising assessment fees and the fear of punitive actions under newly installed state regulator Rohit Chopra may push some California-chartered banks to switch to a federal overseer, some industry observers say.

The White House has nominated Brian Johnson, the former CFPB deputy and a veteran Capitol Hill staffer, to permanently lead the bureau.

Adam Metz has spent the past decade in senior management roles at Pennsylvania-based Orrstown. For the past year, Metz, served as chief operating officer and the designated successor to departed CEO Thomas Quinn.