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ACB participates in ag roundtable in Little Rock

Congressman French Hill hosted a farmer and agriculture roundtable in Little Rock on Friday, October 24, 2025, to discuss the economic challenges facing Arkansas farmers.

The discussion took place at the Arkansas Farm Bureau headquarters.

 

Key issues discussed at the roundtable

• Economic hardship
• Costs and prices
• High loan pressures and tight credit
• Need for governmental assistance.
• Delayed farm bill. 

The roundtable drew about 50 attendees from across the agricultural sector, including: 

• Farmers and ag leaders
• Community bankers and agricultural lenders
• Arkansas Department of Agriculture Secretary Wes Ward
• State Banking Commissioner Susannah Marshall 
• ACB Executive Director Chris Padgett

Source: ACB

Principles for deposit insurance reform

With lawmakers deliberating deposit insurance reform proposals, ICBA this week released recommended principles to inform the debate. 

In the principles, ICBA encourages lawmakers to:

• Promote depositor confidence in community banks.
• Curb too big to fail.
• Control the cost of deposit insurance for community banks.
• Provide increased coverage for uninsured deposits.
• Expand the FDIC’s ability to protect community banks and their customers during crisis.
• Protect the bank-funded DIF for bank resolutions.

In a new Main Street Matters blog post, ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said the large bank failures of 2023 demonstrated the clear need to reform the nation’s deposit insurance system, and recently introduced bipartisan legislation has provided a good starting point for these discussions. 

ICBA recently expressed support for the Main Street Depositor Protection Act (S. 2999) introduced by Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.). In a letter to the lawmakers, ICBA said the bill is a great step to promote balanced deposit insurance coverage across the banking industry, strengthen the deposit insurance system, and support small businesses that use transaction accounts for payroll and other recurring expenses. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently indicated support for congressional efforts to modernize deposit insurance,  saying he was “encouraged to see emerging bipartisan support for increasing FDIC insurance limits on noninterest-bearing transaction accounts.”

Source: ICBA

BSA update on Senate radar

A group of Republican senators, led by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (SC), introduced legislation to update and increase reporting thresholds for currency transaction reports and suspicious activity reports under the Bank Secrecy Act.

The reporting requirements currently mandate banks and credit unions to report cash transactions over $10,000 and suspicious activities over $2,000 or $5,000, depending on the situation. The proposed law would raise the thresholds to $30,000 for currency transaction reports and $3,000 or $10,000 for suspicious activity reports, with provisions for the Treasury Department to adjust the amounts every five years to keep pace with inflation.

Source: ICBA

Threat actors exploiting Windows vulnerability

Threat actors are actively exploiting a high-severity Windows server message block vulnerability, the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center said in its latest weekly risk summary.

FS-ISAC said the flaw allows attackers to gain SYSTEM privileges on unpatched systems, and it affects all versions of Windows Server, Windows 10, and Windows 11.



Source: FS-ISAC; ICBA

Call for unified AI regulations

ICBA called on the White House to harmonize the regulatory framework for artificial intelligence to address ambiguities inhibiting AI adoption.

In a comment letter responding to an Office of Science and Technology Policy request for information on AI regulatory reform, ICBA said the administration should:

• Harmonize AI standards to address regulatory fragmentation and inconsistent expectations across agencies.
• Modernize model risk-management standards for community banks so requirements scale by bank size and model complexity.
• Establish clear third-party AI contract guidelines to promote vendor transparency without additional burden.
• Clarify data-use and privacy safeguards for responsible AI utilization under GLBA and state laws.
• Train community bank examiners and publish evaluation guidance for AI to drive consistency and predictability.
• Establish a unified regulatory sandbox for community banks to pilot AI safely.
• Expand AI and digital identity frameworks to mitigate emerging risks.
• Improve alignment between AI and cybersecurity frameworks.

Recent Advocacy:

• ICBA last month told Congress that while AI has the potential to help community banks meet regulatory burdens and expand access to credit, thoughtful regulation is needed to ensure innovation does not come at the expense of consumer protection or financial stability. 
• Prior to the administration release of an AI Action Plan earlier this year, ICBA told the National Science Foundation that AI has the potential to improve efficiency, strengthen risk management, and enhance customer service, but regulatory frameworks must evolve. 

Source: ICBA



An article from 
Smiley Technologies


Building the Future

Strategic Approaches to Open Banking, BaaS, and AI for Community Banks

"As the banking industry evolves, community banks are facing more and more pressure to adopt new technologies like open banking, Banking as a Service (BaaS), and Artificial Intelligence (AI). These innovations promise to enhance customer experiences, improve efficiency, and open doors to new revenue streams. However, they also come with challenges—especially when it comes to security, integration, and maintaining the trust of your customers."

This article by Smiley Technologies, an ACB Associate member, is a guide that walks through the key trends shaping the future of banking, helping you evaluate potential technology partnerships thoughtfully and strategically.

Click here to learn more.

Source: Smiley Technologies

Banks are warming up to stablecoin

Curiosity is replacing hesitancy as banks warm up to stablecoin.

Just a few months ago, banks mostly felt panic and anxiety about stablecoin, but now they are more curious about how they could play in the space. Very few are shutting the door to the possibility that there might be something here.

Banks' increased interest is coming despite a lack of customer demand, They are worried about deposit cannibalization and being left behind if the payment type takes off.

There's basically no customer demand. At the same time, banks are also aware of the often-cited notion that - if you don't have a stablecoin strategy, you're behind; you're going to lose.

Worries that the stablecoin space could scale dramatically and eat away deposits have heightened concerns about what outflows will mean for banks' ability to lend and power and support their economies.

Bank of America Corp.'s Chairman and CEO Brian Moynihan echoed those concerns saying deposit migration would harm banks and the economy.

"The question of deposit flight is one of those ones that people say, 'I'm not worried about it yet.' That's because there's not much going on yet, honestly," Moynihan said. "But if it becomes a problem, it's going to be hard to put the genie back in the bottle."

He suggested large banks should lead the charge in building stablecoin technology and rails, so that it can be extended to smaller banks. The executive likened that approach to the creation of Zelle.

Comptroller of the Currency, Jonathan Gould said he hopes to implement the GENIUS Act in a way that will allow community banks to disrupt large banks' payments dominance.



"One of the things that I really want to make sure doesn't happen with payment stablecoins is a situation in which, as we have seen in the past, it becomes just the exclusive purview of just a handful of very large banks," Gould said. "That creates the very unfair and unlevel playing field in which only kind of the privileged few can engage in certain activities."

Source: S&P Global market Intelligence

Fair Lending exams suspended?

The OCC has suspended all fair lending examinations until Jan. 31, 2026, and ceased all ongoing reviews of national banks related to fair lending, as the administration reassesses its strategy regarding anti-discrimination initiatives, Bloomberg Law reported.

Examiners were advised to discuss with their managers how to address existing concerns flagged to banks, referred to as "matters requiring attention," concerning fair lending practices, the report said.

The OCC is investigating whether its own practices have contributed to the issue of debanking, as it prepares new regulations and examiner training focused on unlawful account closures, Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould told American Banker.

Gould said the OCC's review will assess not only the decisions made by banks to sever ties with customers but also how regulatory oversight may have discouraged certain banking relationships.

The OCC is also working with the Treasury Department and other regulators to adjust compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, Gould said.

Source: OCC; Bloomberg Law; American Banker

Registration for 2026 Community Bank Case Study Competition

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors announced that registration for its 2026 Community Bank Case Study Competition is now open.

The Community Bank Case Study Competition provides undergraduate students an opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge of the banking industry. The competition pairs student teams with community banks to conduct original case studies focused on timely topics.

For next year’s competition, student teams will explore how community banks have adapted to changing economic conditions since 2020 by examining how they approach interest rate risk, make lending decisions, and respond to inflation.

University professors interested in sponsoring a student team must submit a Statement of Interest by Friday, December 19.

Source: Conference of State Bank Supervisors