The Banker Next Door

On October 21, 2026, the OCC issued GENIUS Act regulations: Final Rule. This Final Rule addressed standards and requirements related to activities, reserve assets, redemption, risk management, audits, reports, supervision, custody, applications, registrations, revocation, recission, and capital and operational backstop. The Final Rule stopped short of preventing stablecoin issuers from providing yield, instead the OCC will examine situations on a case-by-case basis. This did not make the banking lobby happy, as the ABA and ICBA pushed back. It’s not exactly a win for the crypto community either. The OCC sought to “ride the fence” and make both lobbies happy while providing the necessary framework for stablecoin issuance and operations. Does this open the door to deposit-flight concerns? Maybe, but there are pros and cons in every situation. This episode reviewed multiple articles and press releases from S&P Global, Banking Dive, American Bankers Association, and the OCC. A link to the GENIUS Act Final Rule is included below.
Link: Implementing the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act for the Issuance of Stablecoins by Entities Subject to the Jurisdiction of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

Bank News: DFCU to purchase Gulfside Bank. PenAir CU to merge with Fort McClellan CU. Texas Bank to purchase Haskell National Bank. Cross River Bank to purchase Accrue. Triad Business Bank rejected by M&F Bancorp for the fourth time! Enova International and Grasshopper Bancorp terminate deal. Ramp applies for national trust bank charter. Sezzle applies for national bank charter. Upstart gets revolving credit facility from MUFG. TabaPay happy they did not purchase Synapse. Wells Fargo is transforming its AI strategy. PNC CEO says agent only will never happen! Never say that! Plaid CEO thinks AI could fuel a scary year. FDIC mulls agentic AI deposit impact. Citi, JPMorgan, Goldman and other big banks take cautions approach on AI after agents gain access to customer bank accounts. Fifth Third CEO sees online banks and wealth platforms as facing higher AI deposit risk. Stifel makes AI investment. BayCom repositions investment portfolio. Paze looking to make moves after revamp. BitGo is growing after big year. Home Bancorp sees stock slide on increase in credit issues. Barclays to layoff 5,000 employees! As technological pace continues, bank regulators are slow to react. This episode reviewed multiple articles from Banking Dive and S&P Global Market Intelligence (subscription required).

What are the best banking conferences coming up in 2027? Here is a list of 9 conferences worth checking out: Acquire or Be Acquired, ABA Conference for Community Bankers, Fintech Meetup, ICBA Live, ABA Washington Summit, CBA Live, The Financial Brand Forum, National Credit Union CEO Roundtable, and ABA Risk and Compliance Conference. Buy your tickets, hop on a plane, and go on an adventure! This episode reviewed an article from Banking Dive titled “Top bank conferences to attend in 2027.” A link to the article is included below.
Link: Top bank conferences to attend in 2027 | Banking Dive

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.”