Has pay kept up with inflation?

Key takeaways:

• Different ways of calculating real pay can lead to conflicting conclusions about whether pay has kept up with inflation.
• These interactive charts show changes in real pay across pay measures, inflation measures, time periods, and sectors.
• The interactives and analysis will be updated as new data are available.

There are various ways to evaluate recent trends in real pay (nominal pay adjusted for inflation), including using different pay and inflation measures and reference periods. These factors can lead to different conclusions about trends in real pay in the United States. In October 2023, we published a detailed analysis breaking down these differences. The interactive figures in this updated piece allow you to explore changes in real pay using five different pay measures and two inflation measures, relative to a base period of your choice, relative to prior business cycle trends, and across sectors. The interactives will update each quarter as new data are released.

Read more at The Brookings Institution

Banks That Simplify Borrowing Will Win the Next Generation of Loyalty

Consumer debt has become increasingly difficult to manage and it’s not simply because balances are growing. Today, borrowers are juggling more financial relationships than ever before.

New research from Spinwheel suggests that multiple lenders, payment schedules, interest rates, and digital experiences are creating a level of complexity that many consumers find overwhelming. While most borrowers say they understand how much they owe, many struggle to determine the best next step, whether that’s consolidating debt, comparing products, or managing multiple payments.

The findings also highlight shifting consumer expectations, particularly among younger generations that place greater value on convenience, personalized guidance, and digital recommendations than long-standing banking relationships.

Read more at The Financial Brand

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Is It Too Late for Banks to Fend Off the Fintech Threat? Almost, But Not Quite

As I look at the landscape for banking in 2026, I see regulatory changes reshuffling the competitive deck, coupled with new technologies, new fintechs and the unknown impacts of AI. For me, it conjures up images of dinosaurs at the end of an era, looking up at the sky clouded by an asteroid, wondering what will happen next while an inevitable end is in sight.

The dinosaurs couldn’t change their situation; banks absolutely can. It’s not too late, but the situation is urgent.

For all the talk to date of community and regional banks getting disrupted by newcomers, the impact of the fintech era on these banks has looked more like slow erosion. Community banking net income and interest margins are as high as they’ve been since 2018.

Read more at The Financial Brand

Federal Reserve Data Highlights the Importance of Overdraft for Consumers with Limited Credit Access

The Federal Reserve’s Survey of Household Economic Decisionmaking supports CBA survey findings on overdraft use

WASHINGTON, D.C. – CBA analysis of 2025 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED) data found that 60 percent of people who paid an overdraft fee in the last 12 months also reported being denied credit at some point in the same time period—roughly 1.5 times that of consumers who did not report paying an overdraft fee (Figure 1).

The Federal Reserve Board’s findings are consistent with findings from a 2024 CBA survey which found that 60 percent of consumers who overdrafted 1-3 times and 67 percent of those who overdrafted 4 or more times in the last year had a credit card application denied (Figure 2). In contrast, CBA found that only 34 percent of consumers that did not report having relied on overdraft services in the same time period reported having been denied access to credit. 

Read more at Consumer Bankers Association

Have a tax law question?

Our #IRS Interactive Tax Assistant has answers.

Watch this short video to learn more:

https://youtu.be/y6HkaBkdKdU

Jose L. Santiago

Public Affairs Specialist

Tax Outreach, Partnership and Education

Email: jose.l.santiago@irs.gov

Agentic AI Is Here. The Rules of the Road Must Keep Pace.

Artificial intelligence is moving beyond answering questions to taking action. That shift has significant implications for consumers, businesses and the financial services industry.

Consider Meta’s Muse, a new AI assistant capable of completing tasks on a user’s behalf, from booking a doctor’s appointment or restaurant reservation to making purchases. In just its first three weeks, Muse was downloaded more than 6.6 million times, with more than 1.8 million people using the app daily. These numbers underscore how quickly agentic AI is moving into everyday consumer life.

Unlike traditional chatbots that respond to prompts, agentic AI systems can make decisions and execute transactions with limited human involvement at each step. That capability has the potential to make everyday tasks easier, streamline commerce and create new opportunities for consumers. But when an AI agent begins acting on someone’s behalf, important questions arise, including: 

Read more at Consumer Bankers Association

To Streamline Complex Lending Processes, Small and Mid-Sized Banks Must Modernize

Traditional lending operations carry a tax that rarely appears on any line item: the accumulated cost of re-keyed data, paper forms, disconnected systems, and manual document validation.

Reality check: For community banks and credit unions, this isn’t a legacy curiosity; it’s an active drag on growth. For example, at some banks, customers applying for mortgages still fill out lengthy, complex paper forms, which a staff member must then re-key into systems to perform evaluations, risk analysis and more.

As banks pursue growth, these inefficient processes hold them back. In other words, modernization is no longer an option, but an imperative.

Read more at The Financial Brand

PayYield lifts net portfolio yield on every consumer repayment: clearing available funds on debits that

decline today, and cutting what you pay to accept

the dollars that do clear.

Highly Competitive Credit Card Marketplace Provides Consumers More Ways to Save

With affordability continuing to dominate the national conversation, Americans are looking for practical ways to stretch their budgets, manage debt and maintain financial flexibility. Credit cards are an important part of that equation, providing consumers with a wide array of products available to help lower borrowing costs and meet their unique financial needs. From low-APR cards to introductory zero percent offers and balance transfer promotions, Americans have more opportunities to shop around, compare options and find ways to save.

As CBA highlighted earlier this year, balance transfer offers are one particularly valuable tool for consumers working to pay down existing credit card debt. Last week, LendingTree Chief Consumer Finance Analyst Matt Schulz explained:

“A 0% balance-transfer card is about the best weapon that you have in the fight against credit-card debt. If you can go nearly two years without accruing any interest on a balance, which a lot of cards out there today let you do, it’s a complete no-brainer.”

Read more at Consumer Bankers Association

Consumer Financial Services Litigation Series – Episode 1: Pro Se Plaintiffs

Artificial intelligence is increasingly changing single‑plaintiff consumer litigation, particularly by enabling pro se plaintiffs to file longer, more citation‑dense complaints more quickly, while simultaneously giving defense counsel tools to assess cases, identify weaknesses, and pursue early resolution or dismissal strategies. In the first episode of this series focusing on consumer financial services litigation, Joseph Schuster and Matthew Morr, partners at Ballard Spahr in our Consumer Financial Services Group, discuss both the tactical opportunities and the professional responsibility/ethics risks created by AI use in litigation.

Key Topics Discussed:

AI is driving higher volume and “more complete” pro se complaints: Complaints that were once handwritten and sparse are now often lengthy, AI‑generated filings that may include irrelevant material but appear more sophisticated

Read more at Ballard Spahr L.L.P.

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Traditional labor market data isn’t keeping up with jobs in the ‘frontier economy’

Current debates about AI and the labor market overwhelmingly focus on job losses. If you’re a student of history, this might seem counterintuitive: You’ve likely heard the argument that new technologies historically create more new jobs on net than they destroy.

One reason why today’s discourse revolves around job displacement rather than creation is that we have far less clarity about what those “new jobs” are going to be.

Over the past year, as part of my upcoming book, “The New American Frontier: Job Training for the Next Technological Age,” I have been researching the jobs being created in what I call “frontier regions”—places that have been early to develop and deploy critical and emerging technologies. In doing this work, I came to appreciate more fully that the traditional labor market data sources many policymakers rely on were not really designed to shed light on this question, especially not in real time.

Read more at The Brookings Institution

Quick Fixes Like Rate Caps Won’t Solve the Affordability Crisis

A New York Times Guest Essay by Biden Treasury Official highlights how credit card rate caps harm consumers, “making it harder for the poorest borrowers to get access to credit at all.” 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A New York Times op-ed, “Everything Feels So Expensive. Here’s What Really Going On,” by Yale Law School professor Natasha Sarin, a former official in the Biden Treasury Department, highlights how one-off quick fix policies, like credit card rate caps, won’t actually resolve the underlying economic instability facing Americans. Sarin also identifies housing, health care, education, and child and elder care as the largest expenses driving financial stress, which overlap with the “Four Horsemen” of affordability identified in a CBA-supported analysis of household budgets: housing, healthcare, food, and transportation.

Read more at Consumer Bankers Association

Sitting on the Sidelines Until After the Midterms?

You’re not alone. Many business owners and executives are waiting for greater clarity from the November elections before committing to their

next phase of growth.

But waiting to make the decision doesn’t mean you

should wait to prepare for it.

If additional capital will be part of your growth strategy once the political

and economic environment becomes clearer, now may be the right time

to begin the conversation.

New Fintech Unicorns: 19 in 2026, Up from 4 in 2025

A recent research report reports that in the first 9 months of 2026, the US saw 19 new Fintech unicorns, up from 4 in the same period in 2025. At the same time, Fintech funding rose 2% to $17.4 billion in the first three quarters this year, while the average round grew 29% to $25.4 million.

Tracxn reports that much of the funding came from later-stage firms, as first-time-funded Fintech dropped 15% to 264 from 310 in 2025.

Later-stage funding increased by 13% to $10.8 billion from $9.5 billion in 2025.

Read more at CrowdFundInsider

Organizations will need AI and robot relations departments

Organizations are adopting emerging technologies, which will necessitate creating new types of jobs, introducing robot relations departments, redefining the nature of work, and developing a new social contract.

The way firms make these changes and incorporate technology will greatly affect the pace of adoption and how comfortable individuals feel with new tools.

Many of our existing systems and structures are derived from an industrial era that will not address worker concerns arising in the digital world, making it vital to ensure workers have the assistance they need for a smooth transition to digitalization.

Read more at The Brookings Institution

LEND360 Conference was a Great Success! 

Our 2026 LEND360 Conference was a Great Success!

We had a record number of attendees, including record numbers of CEOs and lenders. Networking was king with a record number of meetings booked through our LEND360 platform combined with numerous additional opportunities for participants to make that next connection. The content was incredible, too.

Highlight speakers included Wade Arnold of Moov, Naftali Harris of SentiLink, Sherrie Rees of First Electronic Bank, Jer Woods of Block, Rodney Williams of SoLo Funds, Manoj Verma of TabaPay, Sarah Hartung of Old National Bank, Meredith Winegar of

Old National Bank, and famed political commentator

Karl Rove.

We had over 20 focused content sessions that addressed key issues facing our industry using the expertise of our 100+ speakers to give participants concrete takeaways. 

We extend a special thank you to the 90+ sponsors (including a sold-out exhibit floor)

that made this show possible. We are already working to make next year’s show even better and look forward to seeing everyone at the

2027 LEND360 event in Chicago on October 4-6.

Banks Are Drawing a Hard Line on AI Agents (But Busy Building Their Own)

On third-quarter earnings calls, the biggest banks told customers their AI agents aren’t welcome. Here’s why that matters to you.

Reality Check

On third-quarter earnings calls, analysts pressed bank leaders on how agentic AI would change the deposit battle. Most leaders downplayed the exposure. JPMorgan Chase was the most definitive: give an outside agent your bank credentials, and “any bad consequences are on you, not Chase.”

Jamie Dimon put it plainly: “We’re not going to allow just any outside agents to come inside the company, because it’s just too risky for clients and for JPMorgan.” A little more than a week later, Axios reported that major banks had already seen infiltration by unvetted agentic AI.

Read more at The Financial Brand

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‘Work the Perks’ Becomes Cardholders’ Inflation-Fighting Strategy

Vying for the dinner bill is becoming a behavioral norm, in banker Courtney Mitchell’s experience. Not that diners are fighting to pick up the whole check. In their quest to max their points or cash back, they want the total balance to go on their rewards-earning card, with reimbursement from their fellows later via cash or P2P account.

In fact, Mitchell, head of credit card and unsecured lending at Citizens Bank, recently had a relative intercept her card when waitstaff came for payment after a family feed. He tossed her card back to her, and pulled out his own plastic.

“‘You think you’re getting this? This is mine‘,” recounts Mitchell. “He still expected me to Venmo him my share — he just wanted the rewards.”

Read more at The Financial Brand

Banks and Fintechs: Real Partnerships or Competition?

At Sibos 2026, Cogent Bank and Modulr reveal how banks and fintechs balance collaboration and competition to deliver secure, seamless embedded finance.

Joining FinextraTV at Sibos 2026 in Miami are Barbara Negron, SVP and Managing Director of Embedded Finance at Cogent Bank, and Myles Stevenson, CEO and Founder of Modulr, covering:

• How the industry has shifted from viewing fintechs as competitive disruptors to embracing true, role-defined collaborative partnerships.

• Why success relies on banks providing regulatory control and balance sheet strength, while fintechs drive technology and go-to-market speed.

Read more at Finextra.com

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