The Banker Next Door

This is part 24 of the crypto series. In this episode we review multiple crypto related articles. This week was dubbed ‘Crypto Week’ by the U.S. Congress because of 3 crypto bills that are being reviewed. The Genius Act is scheduled to come up for a vote this week in the house of representatives. In other news, Bitcoin flies to a new all-time high, OmegaPro is charged with crypto fraud, BNY Mellon will have custody of Ripple’s new ...

This episode examines an article from Cornerstone Advisors titled “You don’t need a Chime marketing budget to make smart marketing investments.” Now that Chime has become a publicly traded company, they have released numbers around their marketing budget. For the first time, we can compare what banks and credit unions are spending on marketing compared to one of the fastest growing fintechs. While Chime is spending considerably mor...

This episode examines a series of articles on ‘Stock Tokens’. What is stock tokenization? Is it a real investment? Is it a real asset? Robinhood stirred a lot of conversation over the last week by rolling out stock tokens to their customers in Europe. The two companies they are focusing on are OpenAI and SpaceX. OpenAI immediately came out and said they gave no permission to Robinhood to issue a stock token on behalf of the company...

This episode is an interview with Rob Titterington, a bank recruiter with Highland Consulting Group. Rob and I discuss the current landscape of artificial intelligence and how it is affecting financial services. We cover job applications, hiring, AI skills, will jobs go away, potential job augmentation and increased capacity caused by AI. A link to Highland Consulting Group’s website is included below.  

Link: Homepage - Highland C...

This episode is an interview with Jim McCarthy founder of McCarthyHatch. McCarthyHatch is at the forefront of innovation in the consumer financial industry, driven by their groundbreaking FSAi technology. Jim and I discuss the business, his background, how the company aids their clients in real-time risk prediction, the FSAi technology, and what the current regulatory landscape looks like. A link to McCarthyHatch’s website is inclu...

This episode is a book review for John Jacob Astor and The First Great American Fortune by Alexander Emmerich. This biography traces Astor’s rise from a German immigrant to the wealthiest man in American. The first modern ‘millionaire’. Astor created the template for what we now think of as entrepreneur, businessman, investor, real estate developer, and philanthropist. He created businesses, created the first American settlement on...

This episode is a book review for Millionaire: The Philanderer, Gambler, and Duelist Who Invented Modern Finance by Janet Gleeson. Imagine ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ but the story takes place in 1716. This is the wild story of John Law and the birth of modern finance. Law was able to remake the French economy in a time when the government teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, making him one of the most successful men in Europe. His a...

This episode is a book review of The Greatest Trade Ever: The behind-the-scenes story of how John Paulson defied wall street and made financial history by Gregory Zuckerman. In 2006, John Paulson ran a small, middling hedge fund on Wall Street. He saw the housing crisis coming and figured out a way to bet against the market. While all the ‘professionals’ doubted him, John Paulson pulled off the greatest trade in financial history, ...

This episode examines an article from Bank Director titled “2025 Compensation & Talent Survey: Powering the C-Suite” and the Bank Director 2025 Compensation & Talent Survey. The Key findings from the report include measuring CEO performance, hiring plans level off, DEI programs decline, handling mishires, head count plateau, and costs continue to rise. Links to the article and report are included below.

Link: 2025 Compensat...

This episode examines two reports from the Office of the Controller of the Currency (OCC). Both reports are for the 1st quarter of 2025. The first report is “OCC Mortgage Metrics Report” and the second report is “Quarterly Report on Bank Trading and Derivatives Activities.” The Mortgage Metrics report showed 97.6% of mortgages were current and performing at the end of the quarter. The Bank Trading and Derivatives report showed cumu...

This is part 23 of the crypto series. In this episode we review an article from The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) titled “Crypto billionaire is accused of fraud.” Barry Silbert, one of the original crypto moguls, is being accused of fraud through his defunct company Genesis Capital. What makes this really interesting is that the creditors in the case allege that the ‘Crypto Winter of 2022’, that most believe started w...

This episode examines three articles from Investopedia. The articles are titled “How many people retire with $1 million or more in their retirement account? The number might surprise you”, “Which generation is the wealthiest in U.S. history, and why?”, and “US added over 1,000 millionaires a day last year – more than elsewhere, UBS says.” These three articles together can give us a very interesting look into what is happening with ...