Bank investment portfolios were hit hard when the Federal Reserve increased interest rates a few years ago leading to negative AOCI and unrealized losses in their bond portfolio. Should banks sell those underwater securities to reposition their existing investments for positive income? The answer, it depends. This episode examined an article from Bank Director titled “Selling bonds at a steep loss is not always a good idea” and an article from S&P Global (subscription required) titled “Falling interest rates lift banks’ underwater bonds nearer to the surface.” A link to the Bank Director article is included below.    Link: Selling Bonds at a Steep Loss Is Not Always a Good Idea | Bank Director

Citi just rolled out their new rewards card named Strata Elite to compete with AMEX and Chase. Unfortunately, the rollout did not go according to plan as a number of customers were locked out of their accounts and have not been able to utilize the card much less realize the benefits. This episode examined an article from The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) titled “They signed up for Citi’s new premium card. It turned into a nightmare.”   

The Federal Reserve, OCC, and FDIC are all working on slimming down exam requirements for Community Banks. Some of the potential changes include regulatory actions such as “matters requiring attention,” scrapping any requirements that are not found in law or regulation, increasing the existing threshold from $10 billion to $30 billion, changing what pre-exam documentation is required, and tailoring supervision around risks from a banks business model. This episode examined an article from Bank Director titled “Community Bank exams are about to change.” A link to the article is included below. Link:  Community Bank Exams Are About To Change | Bank Director

Chad Hull, Investment Banker, with Janney Montgomery Scott returns to discuss the current bank M&A market. Chad and I discuss some of the large banking M&A transactions recently announced. We consider the pickup in M&A activity throughout 2025 and what changes are driving the uptick. Chad provides his thoughts on why the activity could be sustained into 2026. In addition, Chad talks about what regulatory and technological changes will continue to influence banking.  

Banking regulators are considering deposit insurance reform to better protect consumers and businesses. Congress is also considering deposit insurance reform through a proposed act titled the Main Street Depositor Protection Act (S.2999). The question is, who will the deposit insurance reforms really benefit? Is this reform focused on consumers and businesses or billionaires? This episode examines an article from the Epoch Times (subscription required) titled “Deposit insurance for billionaires?”  

According to an FBI report, bank robberies in the U.S. have declined from a high of approximately 9,500 in 1992 to less than 1,400 in 2023. Why have bank robberies decreased? This episode reviews are article from Investopedia titled “The death of the bank heist: Where have all the bank robbers gone?” This article presented five theories, 1) not a big enough payout, 2) fewer targets, 3) easier to get caught, 4) tougher prison sentences, and 5) better alternatives. A link to the article is included below.  Link: The Death of the Bank Heist: Where Have All the Bank Robbers Gone?

A war of sorts has broken out between Fair Isaac and the three credit reporting bureaus (Trans Union, Equifax, and Experian) over pricing and usage of the FICO credit scoring model. This episode examines how American’s overall credit scores are performing, how rental payments can be used to improve consumer credit scores, and the effects on consumers of the FICO dispute. This episode reviews multiple articles from CNBC and The Wall Street Journal.   

The U.S. auto industry is currently dealing with a myriad of problems that include a pull back on electric vehicles, tariffs, a fire at aluminum producer Novelis, underwater car trade-ins, concentration of purchasing by the wealthy, subprime delinquency, and microchip issues with Dutch (CCP controlled) company Nexperia. Some of these issues will be solved faster than others but the auto industry, just like many other industries, is facing a paradigm shift around tariffs and technology. This episode reviews multiple articles from The Wall Street Journal, Epoch Times, 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.

This is a BND: Strategy Room bonus episode from the 10-25-2025 live stream. This episode details the current subprime auto industry crisis, which has seen the recent failures of Tricolor Holdings, First Brands, and now Primalend. A number of banks have gotten ensnared in this crisis.

Dan Knezevich has been a commercial appraiser for over 30 years. Dan’s background in appraising commercial properties is extensive. We discuss the different valuation methodologies, pricing for commercial appraisals, what constitutes a commercial property, valuing different property types, and other services his firm provides. Dan is the President of Quest Realty Advisors, LLC (“QRA”) a full-service appraisal firm located in Wayne, Pennsylvania. QRA provides the following services: commercial real estate appraisals, real estate tax appeal, estate planning, expert witness testimony, eminent domain disputes and fair market value / presales listing valuation. Links to QRA’s website and Dan’s LinkedIn profile are included below. Link:  Competent Real Estate Valuations - Real Estate Tax Appeal Wayne PA Link: Daniel Knezevich - Expert Witness, Real Estate Appraiser and Investor, Public Speaker | LinkedIn

Erebor bank earns preliminary government approval to proceed as a new startup bank. Erebor is seeking to target many of the same customers from Silicon Valley Bank. The approval for Erebor follows a wave of other companies and startups seeking to become banks. This episode examined articles from The Wall Street Journal and S&P Global Market Intelligence, both require subscriptions. The Wall Street Journal Article is titled “How Hobbit-Inspired Startup Plans to Replace Silicon Valley Bank.” The articles form S&P Global are titled “US bank charter applications surge, dominated by nonbanks” and “OCC grants conditional approval for Erebor Bank’s national charter application.”   

The CFPB collected approximately 14,000 comments on the 1033 rule aka Open Banking rule during the open comments period. The Open Banking debate drew comments from many different groups, which included banks, fintechs, advertisers, food suppliers, consumer advocates, convenience stores, credit unions, grocers, retailers, retirees, libertarians, mortgage lenders, taxpayers, and cryptocurrency groups. Everyone involved arguing for or against this rule. This is one hot topic! This episode examines an article from Banking Dive titled “CFPB deluged with open banking comments.” A link to the article is included below. Link: CFPB deluged with open banking comments | Payments Dive

This is part 30 of the crypto series. Lots of activity in the crypto world! Founder of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, was pardoned by President Trump. US banks are starting to warm up to stablecoins. Zelle is getting into the international crypto competition. Banking panel says stablecoins must be simple. Fed Governor Michael Barr warns about stablecoin risks. Citi CEO says clients want tokenized deposits, not stablecoins. Binance acquires stake in South Korean crypto exchange. Ripple makes another big acquisition. Coinbase buys angel investment platform Echo. This episode examines a series of articles from Fox Business, Investopedia, Banking Dive, S&P Global Market Intelligence, and The Wall Street Journal.     

This is part 29 of the crypto series. Shareholders of Heartland Tri-State Bank received a favorable and somewhat unprecedented ruling from a judge in the crypto embezzlement case. The judge awarded bank shareholders all money recovered, and the FDIC got nothing! Heartland Tri-State Bank was a small bank in Kansas that failed in July of 2023 due to the CEO embezzling $47 million because of getting sucked into a crypto scam. This episode examines an article from Bank Director titled “Failed bank’s shareholders win big in crypto embezzlement case.” A link to the article is included below. Link:  Failed Bank’s Shareholders Win Big in Crypto Embezzlement Case | Bank Director

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 SEC is continuing with charges against Ex-Silvergate Bank CFO. Silvergate Bank was the first bank to fail in the Spring Banking crisis of 2023. Silvergate was the main crypto bank in the country at that time and ran the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN), which was the main rail system between the crypto world and the banking world. The failure of FTX in the fall of 2022 led to a run on deposits at Silvergate Bank. 

The account switching experience for commercial banking clients remains one of the most confounding issues. We delve into some of the main bottlenecks, which are redirecting payroll, merchant services, ACHs, customer payments, notifying vendors, and closure of legacy accounts. This is a process that can take 3 to 6 months to complete. The bank that can address this issue will gain a lot of commercial clients. This episode examines an article from Bank Director titled “The hidden bottleneck in winning commercial relationships.” A link to the article is included below. Link:  The Hidden Bottleneck in Winning Commercial Relationships | Bank Director

As banks continue to grapple with cybercrime that includes ransomware, phishing attacks, and business email compromise (BEC), they need to have an incident response plan. However, simply having an incident response plan is not enough. This plan needs to be updated, tested, and practiced annually. This episode examines an article from Independent Banker Magazine titled “Tackling familiar cyber threats with smarter tools.” A link to the article is included below. Link: Tackling Familiar Cyber Threats with Smarter Tools

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) has released their annual survey of Community Banks. Some of the reports’ key findings include community banker optimism is up, net interest margins, core deposit growth, cost of technology, and cost of funds are the main concerns. Regulatory burden fell from 1st to 6th in this year’s survey. Community banks feel that other regional banks are their primary competitors, but nonbank institutions are gaining. A link to the survey is included below.  Link: 2025CBSurvey_web_CSBS.pdf