The Banker Next Door

This is part 43 of the crypto series. Checking in on Strategy. Their stock is climbing as Bitcoin is bouncing back. Their Bitcoin stockpile is back to their previous level before some recently selling. Michael Saylor believes that Bitcoin will go over $100K in 2027. Bo Hines might be in some trouble, at the very least the optics are terrible. While Bo was in the White House working on crypto legislation, he owned a consulting company called Nxum that was receiving millions from Tether, who stood to benefit greatly from sign crypto legislation. After the legislation got through, Bo was immediately hired by Tether to be their U.S. Chief. Can you say pay to play. Binance has been aiding Iran according to a recent Senate investigation and reporting from The Wall Street Journal. Some of FTX’s investments in datacenters are starting to payoff. What are some things to know about Tokenized Stock? Fiserv starts its stablecoin system. Coinbase is working with Raven and Citibank. This episode reviewed multiple articles from The Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, Investopedia, Banking Dive, and CNBC.

This video is a clip from BND: Strategy Room Live Stream on October 17, 2026. The biggest banks in the U.S. reported third quarter earnings for 2026. JPMorgan reported a rare miss, Wells Fargo reported mixed results, Citigroup reported strong earnings, Goldman Sachs reported strong earnings, Bank of America reported disappointing numbers mainly related to a $1.2B fine for AML violations, BlackRock and Morgan Stanley both reported strong results. While the earnings were good, there are some concerns bubbling under the surface. Rising interest rates, an unstable bond market, geopolitical issues, and questions around the AI boom and potential IPO slowdown could hamper bank earnings moving forward. The episode reviewed multiple articles from The Wall Street Journal and CNBC.

The Banker Next Door (BND) weekly live stream show. Strategy Room provides financial news, commentary, top stories in the business world, economic indicators, and all things banking for the week.

The Federal Reserve released their triennial report on consumer finances from 2022 to 2025. The report is broken down to cover five sections, which include Income, Net Worth, Assets, Debt, and Financial Vulnerability. Some of the key findings include the median net worth of people 75 or older surged 37%. Households in their 30’s saw their median net worth fall 23%, as income remained flat. Owning a home splits the fortunes of 30-somethings. Fewer 30-somethings have retirement accounts. Older borrowers still owe debt with median balances above $100k. Americans fell behind on their bills at a higher rate than at any time since 2010. Despite inflation being at a 40 year high, U.S. households survived the economic storm and thrived. This episode reviewed The Federal Reserve Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances. A link to the report is included below. The episode also reviewed multiple articles from Investopedia and The Epoch Times.
Link: Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025 Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances October 2026

This annual report from CSBS covers a wide range of information on community banks. The report focuses on external risks including inflation, internal risks including cybersecurity, technology costs, credit, staff retention, interest rate risk, AI, fraud, deposit retention, and consumer compliance. Net interest margin and core deposit growth continue to be top risks. Concerns around regulations continue to fall. Most bankers don’t see inflation easing until after 2028. The report then covers products and services, technology, competition, funding, regulatory compliance, and merger and acquisition activity. The report includes some special questions around fraud, stablecoin adoption, and artificial intelligence. Most bankers have concerns about stablecoin, but they are not seeing demand for it. The report concludes with transcripts of five questions for five bankers. This episode reviewed 2026 CSBS Annual Survey of Community Banks. A link to the report is included below.
Link: 2026 CSBS Annual Survey of Community Banks.pdf

This report from the OCC may prove to be one of the most consequential reports of the last 10 years. The 9 largest banks in the U.S. were caught ‘debanking’ clients for political and religious purposes. Obvious discrimination. But were these banks just following regulatory guidance behind reputational risk? Even if they were, it does not excuse what they did. This is a political issue. The Biden Administration weaponized banks to go after conservative individuals and Christian organizations. Egged on by wokeness, cancel culture, and political ideology, these banks went wild! The questions now are what should be done about it and how do we make sure this never happens again? In this report, the OCC provides examples, key observations, background of the debanking review, key policies covered, impacts of reputation risk practices, debanking decisions of interest, impacts on industry, and customer experience. The report concludes with bank responses to the executive order and OCC’s review and the OCC’s efforts to address debanking and promote fair access. This episode reviewed the OCC report Debanked: Guaranteeing fair banking for all Americans. Links to the press release and report are included below.
Link: OCC Releases Report on Large Banks’ Debanking Activities | OCC
Link: Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans

America is in a major race with China over AI. What are the stakes? Just about everything! Who will be the dominate power in the world hangs in the balance. This episode sought to look at who’s winning the AI race? Can China win and what happens if they do? Beyond business and consumer applications there are major concerns around Cyber warfare and Military use. Both sides have some advantages. America has a lead in Frontier models, datacenters (computational power) and the quality of microchips. China has a lead in manufacturing capability, supply chain components, and power generation. America is being held back in two major areas, manufacturing and power generation. Regulation and politics are hindering the efforts to bring much needed manufacturing back to the U.S. and the lack of development in nuclear and coal-based power sources over the last 40 plus years has come back to hinder the U.S. in a critical moment. China is not without its issues. It can develop cheap copycat AI models, but it does not have the compute power to deploy them. What can America do to win this race? This episode reviewed an article from The Epoch Times (subscription required) titled “Is America winning the AI race? We asked 10 experts.”

Bank News: Third Coast Bancshares to purchase Great Plains Bancshares for $240M. TowneBank to purchase Blueharbor Bank for $154M. Pinnacle Bancorp to purchase Southern Bancshares. Byline Bancorp recent purchase will not stop them from pursuing another M&A deal. Anchorage digital to purchase payout platform Routable. Peoples Bancorp could be taking risks with most recent bank purchase. M&F Bancorp continues to be pursued by Triad Business Bank with unsolicited offer. Home Bancshares continues to pursue M&A. Rain and Modern Treasury seek OCC trust banking charters. Upgrade applies for ILC banking charter. Payward seeks EU license through a bank acquisition. ICBA sues OCC over trust charters. OCC drops major debanking report. Bank of America, American Express, and SEB fines over AML violations. US Bank has not seen much demand for Stablecoins. Fiserv decided to pivot on FISUD. Jamie Dimon and Charlie Scharf discuss AI-driven deposit flight fears and risk of AI agents. U.S. bank seeks more small business growth. Apple Bank hopes to break through against large competitors. Truist sells personal loan unit. First Horizon sells residential mortgage portfolio. Warren pushes Epstein Bill. Powell probe is dead. New probe into Lisa Cook has been opened. Fed changes bank supervision structure. Gen Z and Millennials are satisfied with online banks and fintechs. This episode reviewed multiple articles from Banking Dive and S&P Global Market Intelligence (subscription required).

This video is a clip from BND: Strategy Room Live Stream on October 10, 2026. How are banks currently performing? Wall Street is expecting record bonuses again in 2026. Update on M&A deal activity. Loan growth continues to be good, but there is concern around increasing interest rates and how that may affect margins in the third and fourth quarters. Banks continue to see increases in auto lending. Finally, the Federal Reserve is considering changes to the current $10 billion-dollar regulatory asset threshold. This episode reviewed multiple articles from The Wall Street Journal and S&P Global (subscriptions required).

The Banker Next Door (BND) weekly live stream show. Strategy Room provides financial news, commentary, top stories in the business world, economic indicators, and all things banking for the week.