The Banker Next Door

This video is a clip from BND: Strategy Room Live Stream on August 22, 2026. Stephen Miran and Nouriel Roubini wrote a research paper for Hudson Bay Capital titled “ATI: Activist Treasury Issuance and the Tug-of-War over monetary policy.” This research paper was originally published in July 2024. ATI, in a sense, was the Treasury Departments version of Quantitative Easing. ATI became a tool in the Treasury’s toolbox. Given what Scott Bessent is looking to do in the bond market, I thought this was a good time to go back and review ATI. A link to the research paper is included below.
Link:69e6aab714fc6f94b589fcc0_635102_ATI_-_Activist_Treasury_Issuance_and_the_Tug-of-War_over_Monetary_Policy.pdf

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.

Bank News: Brazil’s Itau Unibanco Holding gets OCC conditional approval for a U.S. bank charter. Old Glory Bank is forced to scrap merger with SPAC. Flagstar Banks goes with Fiserv ‘s Finxact on new cloud-native core system. The SEC charged an ex-Bank of America Banker with insider trading. SouthPoint Bancshares is in trouble with the Federal Reserve and Alabama State Banking Department. CFTC bans ex-FTX execs Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang from trading for only five years. Democrats introduce anti-corruption bill because Trump backed World Liberty received a conditional bank charter. The OCC’s Jonathan Gould had some interesting comments at a blockchain symposium. SEC proposes crypto rules because The Clarity Act is stalled in the Senate. Bankers are seeking a clearer definition of ‘material financial risk’ in proposed CAMELS changes. This episode reviewed multiple articles from Banking Dive.

Mark Walter’s, CEO of Guggenheim Partners (big wall street player) and owner of the Dodgers and Lakers, received what amounted to a $20 billion-dollar regulatory margin call. This forced him to sell the Lakers very quickly and scramble for additional funds. This event shined a light on the ties between Private Equity, Private Credit, and Life Insurance companies, which led to major concern among state insurance regulators and federal regulatory authorities. Mr. Walter’s insurers apparently lent more than $20 billion of policyholder money to his own private entities without properly disclosing the affiliations. The problem here is that this is not a one-off or isolated incident. It is a peak behind the curtain into a much larger game on wall street that has been going on for a while now flying under the radar. The question is will the regulators be able to clean this up before another major blow up occurs. This episode reviewed a Substack article from Edward Dowd (subscription required) titled “Mark Walter’s $20 billion regulatory margin call: How Guggenheim’s insurance arm funded his empire.” You can follow Edward Dowd on X @DowdEdward.

Tioga-Franklin Savings Bank in Philadelphia becomes the fifth bank failure of 2026. The bank had $68 million in assets as of June 30th. The FDIC estimates that the failure will cost the Deposit Insurance Fund approximately $5.5 million. Second Federal Savings and Loan Association assumed all the single branch bank’s deposits and most of its assets. The FDIC acted as receiver. Tioga-Franklin Savings was founded in 1873 and was one of about 22 black-owned banks in the U.S. The bank was plagued by deficiencies that were identified starting back in 2023. Despite being under a regulatory consent order since 2024, the bank was not able to adequately address its issues. This episode reviewed an article from Banking Dive titled “Philly lender becomes fifth bank to fail in 2026.” A link to the article is included below.
Link: Philly lender becomes fifth bank to fail in 2026 | Banking Dive

Why would someone want to start a De Novo bank? If you wanted to, how would you go about it? What is the process? This episode tries to answer these questions. First, if you want to start a De Novo bank focus on the “why.” What is a compelling customer problem and how will you solve it? What is your niche? Why would a customer switch to your bank? A good example is Bird-in-Hand Bank in Lancaster, PA. This bank was built to specifically serve the Amish community. Another consideration is local community relationship banking versus national product-centric fintech platform. Let the “why” drive everything. Second, If you want to start a De Novo bank you should follow these 7 steps. 1) Team and Governance, 2) Seed money, 3) Choose the niche, 4) Three-year business plan, 5) Choose charter type and file, 6) Raise capital, and 7) Build infrastructure and tech. This episode reviewed two blog posts from PCBB titled “De Novo Formation Part 1: Start with the Why” and “De Novo Formation Part 2: Executing the how.” Links to both blog posts are included below.
Link: De Novo Formation - Part 1: Start with the Why
Link: De Novo Formation – Part 2: Executing the How

The FDIC announced a new deposit insurance application process. This will be a two-phase process used to evaluate new applications to speed up the review process. The FDIC will provide de novo applications who satisfy requirements with a contingent authorization within 120 days of receiving the application. The idea is to make the process more efficient by getting a green light before organizers spend significant capital and time to form a new bank. Additionally, the OCC said it will continue to encourage the formation of new banks and strengthen the resilience of the federal banking system. This episode reviewed press releases from the FDIC and OCC and an article from Banking Dive titled “FDIC tweaks de novo application process.” Links to the FDIC and OCC press releases are included below.  
Link: OCC prioritizes de novo banks - ICBA Payments
Link: FDIC tweaks de novo application process | Banking Dive

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.

This video is a clip from BND: Strategy Room Live Stream on August 16, 2026. Private Credit has a liquidity issue as loan defaults continue to increase. While cash redemption requests have calmed down a little, they continue at a concerning pace. At the same time, money inflows into Private Credit funds have slowed dramatically and loan defaults continue to rise. This mix of events is leading to liquidity issues, but what does ‘liquidity’ mean? That depends on who you ask in the Private Credit world. The goal post has moved from ‘everything is fine, nothing to see here’ to ‘we are in a credit cycle and there will be some losses.’ Next Stop – ‘who could have seen this coming?’

The Treasury department has ended reporting requirements for American small businesses know as Beneficial Ownership Information or BOI. The Treasury issued a final rule in the federal registry. The final rule also deleted all previously collected BOI information. Congress passed The Corporate Transparency Act in 2021, which required FinCEN to create a database that would collect BOI information on small businesses in the U.S. In classic congressional style you have to pass the bill to know what is in it! After American small business owners discovered this new data collection and realized that it was unconstitutional, as the suit brought by NSBA proved, the pushback began. Treasury killed the database from FinCEN, but banks are still required to collect BOI on their customers. This has not completely gone away. A new administration could resurrect this database idea. This episode reviewed an article from The Business Journals (subscription required) titled “Trump admin ditches small business reporting mandate” and a press release from FinCEN. A link to the FinCEN press release is included below.  
Link: FinCEN Permanently Ends Beneficial Ownership Reporting Requirements for Millions of Small Business Owners | FinCEN.gov