This is BankRegPulse Intelligence Brief for Friday, February 13th, 2026.

Federal banking regulators are coordinating preparation for the 2026 examination cycle with mandatory stress test scenarios now released by both the OCC and FDIC.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration faces growing pressure on two fronts - scaling back steel and aluminum tariffs amid voter affordability concerns, and navigating the crypto-banking policy split that could reshape where Americans keep their deposits.

Credit stress indicators are flashing warning signs with card delinquencies hitting levels not seen since the financial crisis.

The OCC and FDIC have released their mandatory 2026 Dodd-Frank stress test scenarios for covered institutions with assets exceeding 250 billion dollars.

Twenty-eight macroeconomic variables span baseline and severely adverse conditions.

Banks need to integrate these scenarios into capital planning models by late March to meet typical CCAR submission timelines.

This coordinated release signals regulators are preparing for intensive economic resilience testing in the coming examination cycle.

Adding to the regulatory landscape, the CFTC announced new Innovation Advisory Committee members, signaling continued focus on emerging financial technologies as the administration grapples with broader crypto-banking policy decisions that could determine the future of digital asset oversight.

Economic pressures are mounting across the banking sector.

New Federal Reserve research reveals U.S. firms and consumers absorbed nearly 90 percent of 2025 tariff costs.

Average tariff rates jumped from 2.6 percent to 13 percent throughout the year, with foreign exporters failing to significantly reduce prices.

The research documents supply chain shifts with Chinese imports declining to below 10 percent, while Mexico and Vietnam gained market share.

This sustained economic pressure is now manifesting in visible market volatility and operational stress across financial services.

The crypto-banking battle intensified as Coinbase reported an unexpected 667 million dollar quarterly loss - negative 2.49 per share against expectations of positive 96 cents.

The platform simultaneously experienced system outages preventing users from buying, selling, or transferring cryptocurrency.

This snaps eight quarters of profitability and highlights operational vulnerabilities during high trading volume periods, reinforcing traditional banks' arguments about digital asset infrastructure reliability amid the administration's stablecoin policy debates.

These economic headwinds are connecting to visible stress in consumer credit markets.

Credit card delinquency rates surged to 12.7 percent in Q4 2025 - the highest level since Q1 2011.

Delinquencies approaching crisis-era levels should trigger examination focus on consumer lending portfolios.

Banks should reassess credit risk models and reserve adequacy as household financial stress mounts across multiple economic indicators.

Industrial commodity markets are signaling broader economic uncertainty that ties back to these credit concerns.

Copper inventories at Comex reached record levels of 589,081 short tons - a 6,400 percent increase since June 2024.

This massive stockpiling suggests supply chain disruption across manufacturing sectors, potentially amplifying the credit risks banks face in commercial lending portfolios.

Regulatory enforcement activity continues with the Federal Reserve issuing an enforcement action against a former Regions Bank employee, maintaining the individual accountability focus that has characterized recent supervisory actions.

Treasury also published multiple OFAC administrative updates correcting identifying information for previously sanctioned entities, part of ongoing sanctions list maintenance.

These developments collectively point to a challenging environment where regulatory compliance intensifies just as economic stress indicators mount across consumer and commercial sectors.

This has been BankRegPulse Intelligence Brief.

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