The Banker Next Door

BND: Strategy Room 1-24-2026

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 battle over Stablecoin regulation (Crypto Series Part XXXIII)

This is part 33 of the crypto series. In this episode we cover the battle over stablecoin regulation as bankers and crypto firms continue to argue over the finer points of The Genius Act and The Clarity Act. On the banker’s side, there is a real concern that if Stablecoins are allowed to pay interest, rewards, or annual yield payouts, that will cause a drain on bank deposits. On the crypto side, players like Coinbase have a legitimate complaint against bankers and the banking lobby for making the legislation in a way that only benefits them. Other news covered includes BlackRock sees a change in retail investors’ access to cryptocurrencies and World Liberty Financial applies for a banking charter. This episode reviews multiple articles from The Wall Street Journal, Bank Director, CNBC, Fox Business, Banking Dive, and S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Supply Chain Finance - Cash flow strategy, financial engineering, or fraud?

The collapse of auto parts supplier First Brands in 2025 has put a spotlight on the cash flow technique known as Supply Chain Finance (SCF). This is also known as “factoring receivables” or “collect early, pay late.” The problem with SCF is that it can distort a company’s actual cash flow position. It can make cash on hand look a lot stronger by pushing off payments to vendors and moving debt to accounts payable on the balance sheet. In the case of First Brands, they took SCF to an extreme and ultimately committed fraud. For many companies in the business world that use SCF every day, it works fine if it is not abused. Everything in moderation, as the saying goes. This episode reviews an article from The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) titled “The collapse of a car-parts supplier puts spotlight on how cash flow can lie” and an article from Investopedia titled “Supply chain finance: What it is, how it works, example.”

How the collapse of Ayandeh Bank sent Iran into crisis!

Whenever you have massive unrest in a country that threatens the current regime, you can bet before all the protests a bank failure occurred. The current situation in Iran is no different. In 2025, Ayandeh Bank failed due to almost $5 billion in losses on a lot of bad loans. The Iranian government rolled the bank into a state bank and printed a ton of money to cover the massive losses. Unfortunately, that never works out well. In this situation you see all the classic mistakes, banks fail then central bank prints money to cover it up, which causes a devaluation of the currency and rising inflation, which leads to a drop in wages, which leads to people not being able to buy food and then chaos in the streets. There are many correlations between this example and what our own central bank has done here in the U.S. This episode reviewed an article from The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) titled “The obscure bank collapse that sent Iran into a tailspin.”

Why did Apple's credit-card partnership with Goldman Sachs fall apart?

How did Apple’s credit-card partnership with Goldman Sachs completely fall apart? Goldman Sachs decided to make a push in retail banking a few years ago with Marcus and the Apple Card portfolio. That strategy proved a failure and Goldman decided to get out of that end of the banking business. Marcus was closed, loans sold off and the Apple Card portfolio became the last piece. The set up of the Apple Card was unusual from the start with Apple insisting on customers getting a statement at the beginning of each month, no late fees, and every applicant being approved. This caused Goldman to have customer service issues, a high level of delinquency, and large losses on the portfolio. To get JPMorgan to purchase the portfolio, Goldman had to take a $1 billion dollar haircut and agreed to backstop a certain percentage of the portfolio from future losses. Ultimately, it could take up to 2 years to transfer the portfolio from Goldman to JPMorgan. This episode reviewed an article from The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) titled “Behind the unraveling of Apple’s credit-card partnership with Goldman Sachs.”

The end of America's last luxury retailer as Saks declares bankruptcy!

Saks Global files for chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company was saddled with a large amount of debt stemming from the purchase of Neiman Marcus, which was funded with $2.2 billion in junk bonds. Right after the merger with Neiman Marcus, Saks immediately began having cash flow issues. Saks stopped paying vendors, vendors didn’t send products, and soon the lack of adequate inventory led to a drop in sales. The deterioration in sales meant that Saks was unable to make a $100 million dollar interest payment on their debt in December. Richard Baker, Saks Global CEO, was forced to step down and a new team has come in to lead the company through restructuring. This episode reviewed multiple articles from The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) and CNBC.  

BND: Strategy Room Bonus - real estate update

This is a clip from the BND: Strategy Room Live Stream from 1-10-2026. This clip provides an update on the real estate market.

BND: Strategy Room Bonus - auto industry update

This is a clip from the BND: Strategy Room Live Stream from 1-10-2026. This clip provides an update on the performance of the U.S. auto industry. 

BND: Strategy Room 11-17-2026

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.

A look at bank charter applications, De Novo startups, IPOs, and M&A to start 2026

There were 31 total bank charter applications filed in 2025 but most of those applications came from nonbank digital asset-focused companies. Meanwhile, the number of De Novo bank applications for 2025 was only 3. Furthermore, there were 5 US bank IPOs in 2025, the highest number in four years. Finally, Bankers see a lot of potential activity and fee income in the M&A market for 2026. This episode reviewed four articles. Three from S&P Global Market Intelligence (subscription required) titled “Nonbanks dominate 2025 bank charter application surge,” “Number of new US banks reaches lowest level in at least 7 years,” and “US bank IPO activity reaches highest level in 4 years.” One from The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) titled “Bankers are gearing up for another onslaught of Monster Deals in 2026.”