Banking with Interest

Claire Williams, Capitol Hill reporter for American Banker, and Brendan Pedersen, who covers financial services for Punchbowl News, discuss the latest on financial policy. Will Christy Romero Goldsmith be confirmed to lead the FDIC? Is Basel III Endgame dead? How could Sen. J.D. Vance as vice president impact bank policy going forward?

Phil Mobley, national director of office analytics for CoStar, the leading firm when it comes to commercial real estate, talks about how the market has changed in the wake of the pandemic. He discusses the trends right now, where the market is headed, and what risk office CRE poses to banks.

Pete Schroeder, who covers financial regulation and policy for Reuters, breaks down why federal banking agencies are split on how to finalize new capital rules and explains how policymakers are reacting to a nominee for FDIC chair.

Frank Abagnale Jr., an expert on check forgery and the subject and inspiration for Steven Spielberg's film "Catch Me If You Can," talks about why check fraud is so much worse in recent years despite the overall decline of use of checks. He talks about why banks are struggling to detect forgeries, how policymakers should address the issue, and why the problem is poised to become even more dire.

Penny Crosman, executive editor of technology at American Banker, goes behind the scenes on a case of Zelle fraud that cost a consumer thousands of dollars—and what it means for a coming policy fight between the big banks and Washington over the real-time payment system.

Andrew Ackerman, a financial services reporter for the Wall Street Journal, discusses what happens next after FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg's surprise announcement that he will resign upon confirmation of a successor. Ackerman also details how regulators plan to dial back the Basel III Endgame proposal, and talks about the CFPB's future after the Supreme Court upheld its funding structure.

Brendan Pedersen, the financial services reporter for Punchbowl News, discusses the critical importance of upcoming hearings to the future of the FDIC and disturbing revelations from a recent report looking into the agency's culture. He also discusses an upcoming House vote on a crypto bill and the latest on financial privacy and stablecoin legislation.

Rep. Frank Lucas, the longest serving Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, makes his case for why he should be the next chair, offering his views on community bank consolidation, whether the Fed should be independent, the dangers of quantum computing and how history informs his view of government agencies and programs.

Hilary Allen, a law professor at American University Washington College of Law, warns that a stablecoin regulation bill could open the door to mixing banking and commerce, allowing WalMart, Amazon or Google to effectively set up their own bank without facing bank-like regulations. She also details issues with the legislation introduced to date, including failures to address critically important issues.

John Heltman and Claire Williams, two journalists with American Banker, discuss the outlet's recent series on populism and how it impacts banks. They tackle why the banking industry is so often the target of populist politicians from both the left and the right, how populism is changing the debate on various bank policy debates now, and what comes next.