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The Federal Reserve will trim its bank supervision staff by 30% by the end of next year, the Wall Street Journal reported last week. (subscription required) The newspaper cited an internal memo outlining the cuts, which are being overseen by Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman. The reductions will leave the Fed’s supervision and regulation division with about 350 …

A proposed bill to establish a nationwide cap on fees and interest on credit cards and consumer loans would have a devastating effect on access to credit for individuals and small-business owners, the American Bankers Association, Independent Community Bankers of America and six other financial sector associations said in a letter on Monday. The Protecting Consumers from Unreasonable Credit Rates …

OBA President and CEO Adrian Beverage contributed an op/ed article to the Tulsa World over the weekend, where he discussed the outdated model that allows credit union to avoid paying taxes. You can read the article on the Tulsa World’s website, although a subscription is required.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week shared several steps the Trump administration plans to take to drive a “community bank comeback,” including a renewed push for regulatory tailoring, a review of core platform providers, friendlier capital requirements and revised requirements for bank anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism programs. Bessent, speaking at the Federal Reserve’s Community Bank Conference on Wednesday, …

The Federal Reserve announced last week that Fedwire Funds Service and National Settlement Service operations will be expanded to include Sundays and weekday holidays. The expansion will be implemented over several years, “no earlier than 2028 to ensure operational and industry readiness.” Both FedWire and NSS currently operate Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. Following the expansion, both services will run …

Last week, the Small Business Administration sent out another letter with criteria for banks under $30 billion in assets to comply with reporting requirements regarding the president’s “Fair Banking Executive Order.” The revised requirements  are less burdensome then originally presented. When it was initially presented, it sure looked like bankers were going to have to spend a lot of time …

The Oklahoma Bankers Hall of Fame announced today the four bankers who will be inducted into its 2025 class later this year. R.S. “Brud” Baker, Sandy Bracken, Gary Huckabay and Lee Symcox will make up the 2025 class. The inductees were selected by a panel of bankers from across the state, and were voted on late last week. The induction ceremony will be …

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will split its bank supervision and examination division into three distinct units based on bank size, the agency announced last week. The move reverses a decision earlier this year by OCC’s previous leadership to combine its midsize and community bank supervision and its large bank supervision departments into a single entity. Starting Oct. …

Did you know the average federal income tax paid by an Oklahoma resident was $10,589 last year? Did you know the TOTAL income taxes paid by credit unions was $0? As a banker, you probably did, but do your customers know? In a time when the federal deficit is regularly at the forefront of the news, maybe they should know …

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and U.S. banking agencies released guidance on Monday for financial institutions on how to share financial information with their counterparts in other countries without running afoul of the Bank Secrecy Act. The guidance is meant to encourage “appropriate, voluntary cross-border sharing of information” between financial institutions to help combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other …