What’s on tap for this year’s Payments Forum?

Can banks win at agentic commerce? What’s next for real-time payments? And where are mobile wallets headed? The industry’s top experts will dive into these issues at American Banker’s Payments Forum from May 4-6 in San Francisco.

Bank of America settles with Epstein victims for $72.5 million

The nation’s second-largest bank agreed to the massive settlement to avoid a looming trial in May over accusations that it enabled suspicious, multimillion-dollar transactions — including a staggering $170 million payment from the former Apollo CEO Leon Black — to Epstein.

The linchpin of cybersecurity is at risk

A database that holds the details about every attack on databases is itself at risk of being compromised, which would leave banks and other businesses on their own when it comes to network defense.

Iran war-fed inflation is taking rate cuts off the table

Two former members of the Federal Open Market Committee said in interviews that they expect the Federal Reserve to keep rates steady amid uncertainty over the ongoing war with Iran and the resulting upward pressure on inflation.

Property tax revenues jumped 5% in 2025

The latest rise in property tax collections at the end of last year continued a nine-quarter streak of increases, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

Goldman Sachs’ Epstein confidante gets $25M

Goldman Sachs Chief Legal Officer Kathryn Ruemmler received an 11% pay hike last year, bringing her total compensation to $25 million; U.S. Bank promoted Toby Clements to chief operations officer; Klarna is expanding its forward-flow and whole-loan sale deal with Elliot Investment Management to $2 billion; and more in this week’s banking news roundup.

Loan sale cuts bank’s thorny ties to West Va. lawmaker

Carter Bankshares in Martinsville, Va., sold more than $200 million of loans made to companies controlled by Sen. Jim Justice and his family, closing out a once close relationship that later descended into rancor and litigation.