Mercantile's pending acquisition of Eastern Michigan is approved by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and Rise Economy announce a $2.5 billion addendum to Columbia Bank's community benefits agreement following its acquisition of Pacific Premier Bank; the Federal Reserve Board and CFPB raise the thresholds for certain credit and lease transactions; and more in this week's banking news roundup.

The megabank cleared a regulatory hurdle when the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency freed it from a July 2024 amendment to a consent order. Two other orders, one from the OCC and the other from the Federal Reserve, remain in place.

Moving cannabis from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug would not legalize cannabis or remove all barriers to cannabis banking, but it would allow operators to write off expenses, increase cannabis customer cash flow and eligibility for favorable loans.

A federal appeals court agreed to have the full bench rehear arguments by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's union about whether the Trump administration planned to gut the agency through mass firings.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology's preliminary draft helps banks integrate artificial intelligence into their existing security strategies.

The Department of Justice wants Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to state if the central bank is profitable again and can, therefore, fund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

New research from American Banker explores how bankers predict stablecoins, subprime credit, cyber security and other factors will shape the industry at large.

Bank groups, crypto firms and regulators are divided over whether fiduciary digital-asset custody fits naturally within the national trust charter model — or whether, as critics argue, the agency is quietly reinventing the charter.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued a proposal setting application criteria for banks to issue stablecoins and sets a strict timeline under which banks may have their applications reviewed. The agency also reduced deposit insurance assessments for banks and slashed its 2026 proposed budget at a board meeting Tuesday morning.

Two former chairmen of the Independent Community Bankers of America take issue with the trade group's decision to support legislation that would dramatically increase federal deposit insurance levels.

These are the executives, regulators, investors, disruptors and firebrands who will have the biggest impact on bankers in the coming year.

A new report from the Basel, Switzerland-based Financial Stability Board found that nonbank financial institutions grew considerably faster than banks in 2024 and now control more than half of the world's financial assets.

The payments company submitted applications to the Utah Department of Financial Institutions and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to create PayPal Bank. If approved, Mara McNeill, the former president and CEO of Toyota Financial Savings Bank, will serve as PayPal Bank's president.

Passing a federally mandated stress test is table stakes in risk management. Banks need to be proactive about designing and implementing stress tests that consider a wide range of scenarios, with a particular focus on tail risks.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Friday approved national trust charter applications for five crypto firms, affirming the administration's push to allow crypto companies the ability to take deposits. 

Know-your-customer rules are a longtime fixture of bank compliance regimes, but as autonomous AI "agents" increasingly access banking systems, new rules for verifying their status are desperately needed.

The Brazilian fintech is on the hunt for an acquisition since new rules approved in November forbid the use of "bank" in a brand unless the company holds a banking license, which Nubank does not.

Recent weeks have seen a flurry of stablecoin risk reports from international finance institutions. Noelle Acheson deduces what's really going on here.

The House Financial Services Committee discussed allowing banks to experiment with artificial intelligence with a waiver from regulatory penalties, including consumer protection laws, in a hearing.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to issue an interim final rule soon on consumer financial data rights because the agency expects to run out of money by Dec. 31.