Undefined ‘material financial risk’ in CAMELS rule draws fire
Bankers say they appreciate the Trump administration’s new cross-agency supervisory shift toward prioritizing issues that present “material financial risk”over more trivial box-checking exercises. But there’s just one problem: they don’t know what “material financial risk” means.
The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council’s proposal to reform its Uniform Financial Institutions Rating System — commonly known as CAMELS — elicited a wide range of opinions from groups and individuals in and around the banking industry. Some argued that the changes would go too far in altering the scoring system, while others say it wouldn’t go far enough.More here.
Fintech investment continues to focus on large private deals
Megadeals continue to be the dominant theme in fintech private equity funding this year, even as exits have slowed overall.
The total number of global fintech deals in the second quarter of 2026 fell 25% quarter over quarter and 36% year over year, according to research firm CB Insight’s most recent State of Fintech report. However, the average deal size is up 21% year to date to $23.2 million.
The total amount fundraised across all deals for the second quarter of this year was $11.7 billion, a 20% decrease from the previous quarter and a 7% decrease from this time last year. (CB Insights has updated its Q2 2025 total to reflect deals not previously counted at the time, according to an analyst representative).More here.
Despite White House push, crypto bill’s window is closing
The crypto bill looks to have stalled out in Congress, even as the White House resumed lobbying for it this week.
President Donald Trump, after meeting with fintech CEOs in the White House on Wednesday, resumed pushing for Congress to vote on the crypto legislation.
“Now we need Congress to take the next step by passing the Clarity Act, a fair version of the CLARITY Act,” he said in public remarks, flanked by the CEOs of companies like Kraken, Bitgo and Ripple. “It’s very very powerful structured legislation which will keep us ahead of China, keep us ahead of everyone else, and will open the door to the next wave of innovations and innovators.” More here.
SEC sues three ex-Tricolor executives over bond fraud
The Securities and Exchange Commission sued three former Tricolor Holdings executives Tuesday,accusing them of hiding from bond investors that the subprime auto lender had double-pledged car loans to several lenders at once.
The SEC charged Daniel Chu, Tricolor’s founder and chief executive; Jerome Kollar, its chief financial officer; and Ameryn Seibold, its senior director of finance. The scheme allegedly ran from at least 2020 until the company shut down in September 2025.
The Department of Justice had previously charged all three with defrauding the banks and other financiers that lent Tricolor money (including, as American Banker reported previously, JPMorganChase, Fifth Third Bancorp and Barclays).More here.
Three simple steps for banks to measure AI’s ROI
Lloyds Banking Group has set an ambitious target for its next phase of transformation. Under Accelerate 2030, its “simplify to outperform”strategy includes a digital and AI <a href="https://bitcomme.com/ai-productivity-gains-may-not-reduce-inflation-imf-economist-warns-news-and-statistics/” title=”AI Productivity Gains May Not Reduce Inflation, IMF Economist Warns – News and Statistics”>productivity push and about £2 billion in gross cost saving.
The harder question is how much of those savings can ultimately be attributed to AI.
Banks can make that easier by doing three things before a major AI project starts: Define the business outcome, establish the baseline and make one cross-functional team accountable for the result.More here.
This is the second installment in a three-part series on measuring AI impact in banking.Part 1examined what banks should measure; this article looks at the organizational structure that makes the measurement process easy and accurate.
