Saturday, October 3, 2026
We make bankers better!

Week of Sept. 28

September 29, 2026

In This Issue…

From Adrian’s desk …

By Adrian Beverage
OBA President & CEO

Just some random tidbits that might be of interest to our bankers this week!

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Last week’s Annual Washington Visit was another unqualified success! We had 90-plus join us in our group as we met with the regulators and legislators who affect your industry.

I’ll talk more about it in my Oklahoma Banker newspaper column in October. I know Megan will also have some more photos to share in her newspaper column as well!

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The Oklahoma Bankers Hall of Fame selection committee meets today to make its selections to be inducted in the Hall of Fame later this year.

We modeled how we handle the process from the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, after many discussions with their leadership. When the Oklahoma Banker HoF committee meets today over Zoom, it’ll be the first and only time those members have met, and it’ll be the first time they learn whom is on the committee besides themselves and the OBA Board of Directors Executive Committee.

Once those choices are in my hand, I’ll spend the next few days notifying those who were selected. Check out next week’s OBA Update, or the October issue of the Oklahoma Banker newspaper, for those picks!

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Another week, another win for the Big Red of the North. A 1-0 conference start is nothing to sneeze at when you’ve been wandering about the wilderness of the sport like the ‘Huskers have done for the past decade.

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Softer credit conditions expected by bank economists

Credit conditions are expected to weaken slightly over the next six months as inflation remains elevated and financial conditions remain restrictive, according to the American Bankers Association’s latest Credit Conditions Index released last week.

ABA’s Credit Conditions Index examines a suite of indices derived from the quarterly outlook for credit markets produced by ABA’s Economic Advisory Committee. The EAC includes chief economists from North America’s largest banks. Readings above 50 indicate that, on net, bank economists expect business and household credit conditions to improve, while readings below 50 indicate an expected deterioration. The bank economists were surveyed on Sept. 22.

The ABA Credit Conditions Index has shown signs of modest improvement this year but still indicates expected deterioration. The Headline Credit Index registered 44.7 in the third quarter of 2026. This is the seventh consecutive quarter the index has come in below the neutral threshold of 50 – signaling expectations for weak credit conditions over the next six months.

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First Friday Fraud Forum on tap … other fraud-related news

Don’t forget to join our First Friday Fraud Forum virtual meeting at 10 a.m. Friday.

For this month’s call, click here for the Zoom link. The Meeting ID is 835 6153 2866 and the passcode is 114711. The dial-in information for those without Zoom audio is 1-346-248-7799.  Any banker who is a member of the Oklahoma or Arkansas Bankers Associations may join this call.

Speaking of fraud … At several recent fraud meetings and on other fraud related blogs, we were made aware of a few card fraud trends.  Please share the below information with anyone in your bank responsible for card transactions, disputes, etc.

Fallback fraud — ATMs, Walmart, Home Depot, etc. Fallback transactions occur when the physical card’s chip cannot be read and the merchant falls back to the magnetic stripe. Mitigation considerations: prohibit fallback (could have greater customer impact), limit no more than three fallback transaction in a 24-hour period, limit dollar value of fallback transactions (less than $250 or an amount agreed upon by bank management).

Pay-by-Bank (PBB) — These transactions through Walmart were processing as ACH but are now processing as FedNow (which falls under Reg E). While Walmart is the only merchant deployed through PBB, they are actively working to bring other merchants on board. Customers link their account to the PBB Merchant (Walmart)’s wallet or account by logging into their FI’s online banking via a financial aggregator. Therefore, if fraud is reported on these transactions (whether processing as ACH or FedNow), the customer’s online banking should be considered compromised and account takeover procedures should be followed. Be sure to connect with your RTP/FedNow provider (JackHenry, Fiserv, etc.) to ensure you know how to submit disputes/chargebacks to the merchant.

BIN attacks — to reduce your exposure from a BIN attack using randomizer algorithms, issue debit/credit cards in a random pattern, i.e., not 1,2,3,4,5 but rather, for example, 1,4,6,9,0,2.

Finally, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has issued an urgent alert about critical vulnerabilities in Citrix NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway that attackers are actively exploiting. Banks are being asked to take immediate action to protect their systems.

Citrix provides technology that organizations use to deliver applications and enable remote access to their systems. Its NetScaler products often sit at the entrance to an organization’s network, managing connections between outside users and internal applications. The vulnerabilities exploit flaws in how affected devices process incoming data, allowing attackers to run malicious commands without a valid username or password – and without an employee clicking a link or taking any other action. Citrix said the vulnerabilities were discovered using artificial intelligence.

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OBA Oktoberfest Golf Tournament canceled

The OBA Oktoberfest Golf Tournament, originally scheduled for Oct. 19 in Catoosa, has been canceled.

There will be no makeup date. Refunds for those who have already registered will be processed shortly in the near future.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

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OBA education corner …

Sometimes a blind squirrel finds a nut, and sometimes it happens in music. In this case, the “blind squirrel” is “journeyman band of little repute” and the “nut” is “one of the greatest pop/rock songs ever.” Specifically, we’re talking about the band “Train” and the song “Drops of Jupiter.” Sure, Train had a few other hits here and there, like “Meet Virginia” or “Hey Soul Sister” but as far as making a true cultural imprint, “Drops of Jupiter” was their one and only effort. And what an effort it was! So, when you make it back from the atmosphere, make sure to keep up with what’s happening on the continuing education front, including the following:

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