American Banker Magazine - July/August 2021

Unchartered Territories

Native American reservations have some of the country's highest concentrations of unbanked households. But tribes are finding ways to get their members access to capital — with or without banks.

Rohit Chopra, President Biden’s pick to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is expected to be the type of aggressive leader the agency had at its inception. Is that what consumers need?

Mortgages and wealth management generated fees that gave top midtiers an edge, as the pandemic halted most lending outside of the Paycheck Protection Program.

The best performers in our annual ranking of banks with $10 billion to $50 billion of assets benefited from a big lending push. But like their peers, the top 10 as a group saw their profitability slip last year compared with 2019.

The London interbank offered rate was a flawed benchmark, but it was nonetheless a centerpiece of finance for decades. Congress should ensure it doesn't replace one interest rate monoculture with another as Libor winds down.

The London interbank offered rate will phase out in a matter of months, and lawmakers have to step in to prevent a legal fiasco. They need to make Secured Overnight Financing Rate the sole fallback benchmark.

In his new book “The Day the Markets Roared,” the noted economist Henry Kaufman gives a spellbinding account of the interconnected forces of political power, influence and the lessons the market learns from history.