The US government is now a bitcoin whale. That has consequences
The creation of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve creates a tempting target for bad actors, and raises the stakes for everyone in the areas of anti-money laundering, cybersecurity, market-volatility and sanctions-screening.
Friend or foe? Banks face dilemmas amid private credit boom
Banks that are financing the rise of nonbank competitors have been losing market share in commercial lending. But by getting in on the action, the same banks are also seeing some payoff.
Bowman confirmed as top regulator at Fed
The Senate voted to confirm Federal Reserve Gov. Michelle Bowman’s nomination to be the vice chair for supervision at the central bank in a 48-46 party-line vote.
Wells shed its asset cap — but it isn’t clear why
The first-of-its-kind growth restriction established a new precedent for how regulators can address a broken bank culture. With scant information about why the cap was lifted, the action provides little clarity on what Wells did right — or what the Fed did wrong.
Banks back away from using DEI in determining executive pay
The 5-year-old experiment of tying executive compensation to achieving diversity goals appears to be ending. The abrupt shift comes amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on DEI.
Va. bank turns to workplace banking to spur deposit growth
Freedom Bank is rolling out Freedom@Work, which offers perks for employees of participating companies, as part of a wider strategy to attract more consumer deposits.
Visa, Mastercard, HSBC make open banking payment plays
The card network behemoths and the London-based bank are looking to expand account-to-account payments through fresh partnerships and investments. Plus: President Trump withdraws Shift4 CEO’s NASA nomination, and tokenized payments gain steam in Europe in this week’s global payments roundup.
Market structure bill gets off to rocky start at hearing
House lawmakers discussed the recently-introduced market structure bill, with Democrats expressing concerns that the bill could enable banks to evade securities laws.
Bankers see demand for digital assets, but remain gun-shy
KeyBank and Pathward Bank are among the banks whose customers are asking them for digital asset services. But bankers remain cautious in this time of regulatory uncertainty.
How Truist and Western Alliance deploy AI to fight fraud
Two bankers detailed how artificial intelligence is transforming fraud detection and incident response for their institutions. The technology lets analysts ask datasets direct questions.