The Banker Next Door

America is in a major race with China over AI. What are the stakes? Just about everything! Who will be the dominate power in the world hangs in the balance. This episode sought to look at who’s winning the AI race? Can China win and what happens if they do? Beyond business and consumer applications there are major concerns around Cyber warfare and Military use. Both sides have some advantages. America has a lead in Frontier m...

Bank News: Third Coast Bancshares to purchase Great Plains Bancshares for $240M. TowneBank to purchase Blueharbor Bank for $154M. Pinnacle Bancorp to purchase Southern Bancshares. Byline Bancorp recent purchase will not stop them from pursuing another M&A deal. Anchorage digital to purchase payout platform Routable. Peoples Bancorp could be taking risks with most recent bank purchase. M&F Bancorp continues to be pursued by ...

This video is a clip from BND: Strategy Room Live Stream on October 10, 2026. How are banks currently performing? Wall Street is expecting record bonuses again in 2026. Update on M&A deal activity. Loan growth continues to be good, but there is concern around increasing interest rates and how that may affect margins in the third and fourth quarters. Banks continue to see increases in auto lending. Finally, the Federal Reserve i...

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved plans to further open private markets or alternative assets to individual investors. Many investors are locked out of the best investments such as Hedge Funds, Private Equity, IPOs, private placement memorandums, etc. due to financial qualifications required by the SEC. Under current securities laws an individual must meet the financial criteria of an Accredited Investor. The cu...

Nano Bank in Irvine, California has become the sixth bank failure of 2026! 2026 has now become the year with the largest number of bank failures this decade. The next largest year is 2017 with eight bank failures. In terms of asset size, the combined six bank failures this year account for approximately 1.41 billion is assets, which is minuscule compared to the $552 billion that was lost in 2023 with three of the largest bank failu...

This episode is an interview with Old Glory Bank CEO, Mike Ring. Before Mr. Ring became CEO of Old Glory Bank, he worked as an attorney; earning a JD and LLM in taxation. He started his own law firm specializing in corporate and securities law. Mr. Ring is also the founder of multiple other businesses including Haymon Sports and Katz Broadcasting. Mr. Ring is a veteran, having served honorably in the U.S. Air Force. In the intervie...

What is ‘Effective Altruism’ or EA? Is it a cult, philosophy, or just a bunch of weirdo’s living together at houses in San Fran? Kind of a mix of all three. EA has grown as a ‘philosophy’ over the last 25 years. The problem with this? Many of its acolytes permeate elite academia and Silicon Valley. Namely, OpenAI, Anthropic, the failed FTX, and the almost failed Situational Awareness. The idea behind E...

There have been several deals in the last few years featuring fintechs buying banks. Some examples include SoFi purchasing Pacific Bank and Lending Club purchasing Radius Bank. But with the recent announcement of Valley National Bancorp purchasing Bluevine, could the script be about to flip? Could this be the first of multiple transactions involving banks purchasing fintechs? This deal is a game changer and it certainly puts everyo...

This video is a clip from BND: Strategy Room Live Stream on October 4, 2026. The residential real estate market is dealing with a lot of challenges at the moment. Interest rates for a 30-year mortgage are well over 7.00%. This exacerbates the affordability issue. The residential market is also dealing with rising prices and the ‘lock in effect’, where property owners have locked in mortgages rates between 3-4% and do no...

The industry is currently seeing a few trends in mergers and acquisitions. Recent M&A transactions suggest that quality deposits are in high demand and commanding a market premium. Acquirers are seeking banks with strong low-cost deposit franchises. Additionally, the FDIC is seeking to modernize the bank M&A process by updating competition analysis. The goal is to overhaul part of the process and make it easier for banks to...

Has your bank struggling with digital account opening? Perhaps because of persistent fraud issues? First Farmers Bank and Trust (“FFBT”) was not happy with their existing account opening process, which could take up to 45 minutes to complete. They decided to work with a fintech named Prelim. Prelim’s technology was able to work with FFBT’s existing core system Fiserv. After implementing Prelim’s softwa...

Bank News: Nano Bank becomes the 6th bank failure of 2026. Valley National Bank to purchase Bluevine for approximately $340M. Peoples Bancorp is cleared by the Fed to complete their purchase of Citizens National Corp and quickly announced their second purchase of 2026 with Capital Bancorp. Gulf Winds credit union makes their second purchase of a bank in the last month with an agreement to buy Alabama’s Peoples Exchange Bank. ...

John Harold Rogers was prosecuted by federal authorities on one count of lying to investigators and one count of espionage. He was found guilty of lying to investigators but cleared on the espionage charge. He is currently serving a 38-month sentence. Mr. Rogers served as an economist and senior official at the Federal Reserve. His story takes many crazy twists and turns. He became the asset of a Chinese spy, who he shared a lot of...

What are the top regulatory issues in the banking industry for the 4th quarter of 2026? The banking lobby was able to get The Clarity Act stopped in the Senate, at least for now. The 21st Century Road to housing Act became law on June 10 and has several items that help banks. Final 1071 rule includes strong community bank exemptions. ICBA continues to push for legislation to repeal or modify Section 1071 of Dodd-Frank. More legisla...

This video is a clip from BND: Strategy Room Live Stream on September 26, 2026. As interest rates continue to rise, is there a correlation between rising bond yields and oil? Over the last week we saw rapid increases in the 30-Year Treasury and 10-Year Treasury. History shows us that as interest rates rise rapidly something always breaks! Where will the break come from? The bond market, multi-family apartment buildings, Government ...

ICBA recently released a white paper on bank cyber insurance. The paper discusses current market challenges which include escalating premiums and shrinking coverage, inconsistencies in underwriting, and exclusions, sublimits, and ambiguity. The current AI risk gap in cyber insurance is addressed. The paper then goes into insights and recommendations from community bankers. The paper then wraps up with recommended questions to ask y...