The Banker Next Door

BND: Strategy Room 3-14-2026

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.

Review of FDIC OIG report on Pulaski Savings Bank failure

This report is crazy! Pulaksi Savings Bank failed in January of 2025. The FDIC Office of Inspector General (OIG) complete an in-depth review of the bank’s failure, which was completed in March 2026. Initially, when the bank was closed by the FDIC, they stated that fraud was suspected. The newly released OIG report blamed the failure on ‘key employees’ and $20+ million in liabilities NOT listed in the bank’s financials, which caused the bank to be undercapitalized. Here is the problem, the individual serving as the CEO was also serving as the CFO, CCO, and chief cook and bottle washer! The CEO was responsible for financials, call reports, working with customers, etc. The OIG stated the responsibilities and activities of the CEO were far and beyond outside the normal scope of responsibilities of a typical CEO. They stated the CEO was critical to day-to-day operations and had major influence within the bank, and yet failed to name the CEO as a ‘dominant individual’? We are left with many, many questions at the end of this report. Why did the CEO have a leave of absence in 2023? How long was this absence? Who were the other ‘key employees’? The bank had a seven-year history of MOUs and MRBAs, why were they not shut down sooner? Why was $20+ million in liabilities not included in the bank’s core system or financials? The failure caused a loss to the FDIC fund of $28 million. This sounds like fraud, so why has no one been charged?  Links to the FDIC OIG summary announcement and the OIG In-depth Review of Pulaski Savings Bank are included below.
Link: https://www.fdicoig.gov/news/summary-announcements/depth-review-pulaski-savings-bank
Link: https://www.fdicoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2026-03/EVAL-26-01%20In-Depth%20Review%20of%20Pulaski%20Savings%20Bank.pdf

What is the CFPB really costing the American consumer?

What is the CFPB really costing American consumers? Three reports have recently been released from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs, and The White House Council of Economic Advisors. These reports had dueling narratives about what the impact and cost of the CFPB has been on the American consumer. The report from GAO has multiple charts outlining actions and events that have occurred at the CFPB over the last year. The Senate report tries to make the case that the CFPB has returned upwards of $30+ billion to consumers. The problem is the analysis is extremely flawed. The White House report effectively shows how much regulations and oversight from the CFPB have cost consumers and driven up the cost of obtaining financing. The costs go well over $200+ billion. The report also highlights the massive concerns around politicization at the CFPB in recent years. What is the real cost and impact of the CFPB? You decide! Links to all three reports are included below.  
Link: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-26-108448
Link: https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-26-108448.pdf
Link: https://www.banking.senate.gov/newsroom/minority/new-report-finds-trumps-attack-on-the-cfpb-has-cost-americans-19-billion-in-one-year-alone
Link: https://www.banking.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/cfpb_year_in_review_report.pdf
Link: https://www.whitehouse.gov/research/2026/02/estimating-the-cost-of-the-consumer-financial-protection-bureau-to-consumers/

Review of FSB report 'Vulnerabilities in Government Bond-Backed Repo Markets'

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) released a report in February 2026 that outlines three vulnerabilities in government bond-backed Repo Markets. The interlinked potential sources of structural vulnerabilities include 1) Repo Markets can facilitate a build-up of leverage, 2) Demand and supply imbalances in Repo Markets can arise quickly in stress periods, and 3) Repo Markets are highly concentrated along various dimensions. This report is excellent, providing background on Repo Markets, how they work, structural vulnerabilities, interlinkages, and potential contagion. Repo Markets play a critical role in facilitating the flow of cash and securities throughout the financial system. A link to the report is included below.   
Link: Vulnerabilities in Government Bond-backed Repo Markets

Review of Cornerstone Advisors report 'What's Going on in Banking' 2026

Cornerstone Advisors released their annual report ‘What’s Going on in Banking’ for 2026. The report focuses on Banks and Credit Unions in the United States and provides survey results from hundreds of bankers. The main themes in this year’s report were AI, crypto, tech spending, fraud, and payment channels. Most bankers are very optimistic about the overall outlook for 2026. Deposit gathering is their main focus. They view big fintech as their main threat. AI adoption is increasing. Fraud continues to be a big problem. Most believe tech spending will increase. Most banks are talking about tokenized deposits, blockchain, and stablecoins. Instant payment adoption is increasing, but not where it should be. Most banks are focusing on CRE and C&I lending in 2026. Banks should be doing more with fintech partnerships. Finally, what is going on with Open Banking? Included below is a link to Cornerstone Advisors website.
Link:  https://www.crnrstone.com

Remembering American Economist Dr. Murray Rothbard

Dr. Murray Rothbard (March 2, 1926 to January 7, 1995) would have turned 100 on March 2, 2026. Dr. Rothbard was an American economist of the Austrian School, an economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Dr. Rothbard was one of the most prominent economic thinkers of the 20th century. He was a central figure in the libertarian movement. Politically he was right leaning but got involved with both political parties throughout his career. He was founder and leading theoretician of anarcho-capitalism. He wrote extensively, publishing over 20 books, thousands of essays, and was editor of various periodicals and journals. Dr. Rothbard is absolutely one of the economists from the 20th century whose work should be studied. This episode reviewed an article from The Epoch Times (subscription required) titled “Murray N. Rothbard at 100.”

BND: Strategy Room Bonus - Is the Private Credit Market about to meltdown?

This video is a clip from BND: Strategy Room Live Stream on March 7, 2026. The approximately $1.8 Trillion private credit market turmoil has entered a new phase. It started last year with the failures of Tricolor Holdings, First Brands, and several other small companies. Now Blue Owl Capital is in free fall, BlackRock is restricting investors from withdrawing from one fund while marking down the value of another fund to ZERO, Blackstone had to put in $400 million of their own money to honor redemptions over 5% in one of their private credit funds, and other major players such as Apollo and KKR are seeing their stocks drop 30%+. UK mortgage lender MFS collapsed almost overnight and the ripples of that failure are just beginning. Lawsuits are flying all over the place involving JPMorgan, Barclays, Western Alliance, Jefferies, and more. The Basel Committee on Banking and Supervision warned banks about their high dependence on significant risk transfers (SRTs). All the while, banks continue to lend and sell their loans to Nondepository Financial Institutions (NDFIs) unabated.

BND: Strategy Room 3-7-2026

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.

Review of Q2 The State of Commercial Banking 2026

Q2 is a fintech company that has been around for over 20 years delivering innovative digital banking solutions. This episode looks at one of their market analysis reports titled “The State of Commercial Banking 2026.” The report has six key takeaways, which include 1) liquidity recovers enabling stronger NIM, 2) loan demand has rebounded, 3) competitive climate has intensified, 4) fraud risk is increasing, 5) bank deals are now technology plays, and 6) commercial banking continues to focus on business efficiency.  The report states, “M&A momentum is being fueled less by opportunistic growth and more by the need to modernize platforms, integrate fintech capabilities, and reach AI at operational scale.” Banks in 2026 need to focus on smarter pricing, sharper differentiation, faster decisions, and stronger trust.

Let's talk about Swipe Fees: A review of ICBA Interchange Guide for 2026

How does a debit or credit card transaction work? What are Swipe Fees? ICBA just released a new Interchange Guide which explains this payment channel for small business customers. A debit or credit card transaction has six steps and includes four parties (cardholder, merchant, acquirer, and issuer). Swipe Fees are what the merchant pays the acquirer to accept the card. Swipe Fees have three parts: Interchange, network fee, and acquirer fee. Interchange is what the issuing bank collects. You can have debit and credit card interchange. Network fees are the portion that card networks such as Visa and Mastercard collect. Acquirer fees are the portion that acquirers such as Square, Strip, PayPal, and Clover keep.