Bankshot

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created to protect the people from financial predation. But there are very different interpretations of what that means, and whether the people should be protected by — or from — the government.

A regulatory proposal to raise bank capital has spurred banks to fight back with a populist appeal to consumers, while regulators say more capital is what's needed to save banks from more crises — and help consumers.

The Federal Reserve, historically a secretive and isolated institution, has made a concerted effort to explain itself to and be understood by the public since 2008. But try as it might, the central bank is still viewed by many as an enigma, if not an enemy.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown faces a tough 2024 campaign to recapture his Ohio senate seat in a state that’s increasingly Red. Can the same state that elected conservative populist firebrand J.D. Vance also re-elect Sherrod Brown? And what do the political undercurrents apparent in Ohio mean for banks? 

American Banker editor-in-chief Chana Schoenberger and Washington bureau chief John Heltman talk about the new season of Bankshot, which explores how populism has emerged as a driving force in financial regulation.

The number of businesses shifting to an employee ownership model has ballooned in recent years, and experts say that trend is likely to accelerate. That could have important implications for banks aiding that transition and for the future of small business lending.

How the next generation of payments technology is being developed in fields such as public transit, sports and long-haul trucking.

The failures of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic brought to light the Federal Home Loan Banks’ role as a ‘lender of next-to-last resort.’ Some critics say that the review from the Federal Housing Finance Association should bring the system back to its original purpose of oiling the mortgage finance market. 

A string of big bank failures this spring has cast all manner of regulatory policies into question, but perhaps the most vexing — and most consequential — is the relationship between banks and their government supervisors. But changing an already changing supervisory culture is easier said than done.

In the aftermath of last year’s racially motivated mass shooting in a predominantly Black community in Buffalo, New York, American Banker reporter Allissa Kline explores what responsibility banks have to help segregated, impoverished communities that were shaped in part by past discriminatory lending practices.