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Inflation Readings: Are There Other Informative Cuts of the Data?

The June 10 Consumer Price Index (CPI) reading showed annual inflation reaching a 4.2% annual rate, a three-year high, with a rise in energy prices contributing to the surge. Stripping out volatile food and energy prices, CPI accelerated to a 2.9% annual pace. With prices of food and fuel driving higher upticks recently, the conversation around alternative ways to report inflation has re-emerged. In this discussion, ProSight speaks with Gene Ludwig—former […]

Effective Validation of Existing Real Estate Appraisals

Lenders who expand their use of validated appraisal reports can gain a competitive advantage in real estate lending, improve operational efficiency, reduce turn times, lower costs to borrowers, and maintain regulatory compliance.   There are four “Cs” to keep in mind as you enhance your valuation-related risk management practices:  Comply with Regulatory Expectations  Some lenders use validations on a limited basis, or not at all, because they are […]

Gen X May Be the Most Undervalued Banking Opportunity Right Now

Gen X does not get much attention in financial services strategy conversations. In a recent ProSight Banking Strategies Podcast discussion, Lee Wetherington, senior director of corporate strategy at Jack Henry, and Marcell King, president and COO at Nuuvia, make the case that this may be a mistake. Gen X, they argue, may be one of the most […]

Why Physical Security Now Starts With Digital Exposure

Last November, Felix P. Nater, a workplace security consultant and president of Nater Associates Ltd., told ProSight that companies can no longer treat digital threats and physical threats as separate problems. Protecting executives, employees, and worksites now requires a more integrated approach—one that accounts for how easily online exposure can turn into real-world risk.  That message feels […]

Fraud Has Become an Identity Problem

Fraud in consumer lending is getting harder to think about the old way. The challenge is no longer just spotting a suspicious transaction. Increasingly, banks have to ask a more basic question first: is the customer really who they appear to be?  Cristian deRitis of Moody’s Analytics and Subbu Narayanaswamy of Wells Fargo point to a practical consequence: banks […]

The Hidden Costs of a ‘Successful’ Workout

A full payoff on a troubled loan can feel like a clear win. Principal is back, accrued interest and fees are recovered, and in some cases the bank even books incremental income when the difference between legal balance and book balance reverses. But industry veteran Jason Alpert argues that banks should be more careful about how they define success […]

Consumer Credit Risk Is Hiding at the Margins

Consumer credit can still look stable at the top line even as stress builds in places that matter most to banks. Speaking to ProSight recently, Cristian deRitis of Moody’s Analytics and Subbu Narayanaswamy of Wells Fargo pointed to a more useful way for banks to think about the environment: the real risk is building unevenly, among specific borrowers and specific […]

How ‘Failure Analysis’ Can Help in Banking

The new season of the ProSight Banking Strategies Podcast opens with a big idea: banks should study failure more systematically and with more structure, using it to improve decision-making before the next problem arrives. In the first episode, Donald Sheets makes the case for bringing “failure analysis” into banking as a practical discipline, not just a postmortem […]

Bank Flexibility Is Rising. So Is the Need for Discipline

Bank regulation in the United States is not simply getting lighter. It is getting narrower. In Douglas Elliott’s view, that shift is giving banks more room to exercise judgment—but also putting more weight on how well they use it.  Elliott, a partner at Oliver Wyman, describes a regulatory environment that is moving away from prescriptive, […]

The Hidden Cost of Successful Workouts

As a workout banker, few moments felt better than issuing a payoff letter, especially when it meant a 100% repayment of principal and accrued interest and fees. Short of returning a restructured relationship to the line of business, knowing that a troubled loan would be fully resolved, assuming the payoff actually closed, felt like a clear win after months or years of managing risk. That sense […]

Gen Z Is Redefining What Loyalty Looks Like

Banks and credit unions have always had to adjust to new customer expectations. What makes Gen Z different, according to Carrie Stapp, is not just age. It is the mix of digital habits, economic uncertainty, and AI-enabled behavior reshaping how younger consumers look for financial help, decide what to trust, and judge whether a financial […]

Consumer Protection Is Shifting to the States

Federal pullbacks in consumer protection oversight have not produced the simpler compliance environment some might have expected. In the view of BCG Senior Advisor Brian Hughes, they have prompted something harder to manage: a more fragmented system in which states are building their own consumer protection machinery, expanding their legal authority, and showing a growing willingness to act […]

A More Focused Regulatory Era Brings Greater Freedom, Greater Risk

Bank regulation in the United States has entered a new phase marked less by deregulation than by a decisive narrowing of priorities. In a wide‑ranging discussion with ProSight Financial Association on the current regulatory landscape, Oliver Wyman partner Doug Elliott described a shift away from prescriptive, checklist‑driven oversight toward a framework that emphasizes core financial risks, supervisory judgment, and economic growth. The result […]

How AI Is Transforming Self-Service Banking: Today, Tomorrow, And Beyond

Artificial intelligence (AI) has moved beyond buzzwords—it is a foundational technology shaping the future of banking. Financial services is leading the way in AI adoption, bridging the gap between human intelligence and machine learning to deliver better customer experience, drive growth, and enhance operational efficiency. Data suggest that nearly all North American banks already use […]

The High-Value, High-Margin Opportunities Inside the Building

Customers have moved more of their everyday banking needs online and to self-service channels. Branches, meanwhile, are evolving into specialized hubs for high-value products, problem-solving, and community connection. Financial institutions are hoping that by reframing the role of the branch, they can capture more of the high-margin business that high-touch customer interactions can yield. Within […]

From Service Desk to Growth Engine: Omnichannel Account Opening in The Branch

In most branches today, account opening is still unnecessarily complex. Within a single interaction, bankers log into multiple systems, rekeying the same information while managing identification scans and paper-based forms. This inefficiency has real consequences for customer satisfaction, productivity, and growth. Time spent on technology steals minutes from customer conversations and relationship building. Account holders […]

Data and Automation Are the Missing Links in an Omnichannel Strategy

Banks know how important a seamless omnichannel experience is to customers—understanding isn’t the problem. What has been missing is the infrastructure to deliver on the promise of frictionless banking. And consumers aren’t waiting around… Trillions of dollars have flowed out of traditional checking accounts and into digital-only competitors, who captured 44% of new checking accounts […]

Branch Numbers Stabilize as Banks Reaffirm the Value of Community Presence

The margin between branch closings and new openings has narrowed to multiyear lows in the U.S. as financial institutions reassess the role physical locations play in the omnichannel experience. Persuaded of branches’ value even in a customer service strategy that is increasingly digital, banks are no longer abandoning branches so much as refining them. “Banks […]

States Filling Gaps in Federal Consumer Law

As federal banking regulators retreat from some areas of consumer protection oversight, states are moving decisively to fill the gap. The result is not less regulation for banks, but a more fragmented and, in many cases, more challenging compliance landscape. States have always played a role in consumer financial protection. Attorneys general enforce state consumer […]

The OCC’s Two-Sided AI Warning for Banks

AI is changing the cyber threat landscape by making attacks faster, cheaper, and more sophisticated—but it is also giving banks new tools to manage cyber risk and strengthen monitoring. In the OCC’s spring Semiannual Risk Perspective, that two-sided reality sits inside a broader operational and compliance risk cluster that also includes fraud, sanctions risk, and […]

Building Banking’s Future While Carrying Technology’s Past

Banks named technology their top 2026 investment priority, voting with their wallets as advanced digital and data strategies drive change in the industry. Institutions are cleaning up obsolete code, consolidating and enhancing current capabilities, and anticipating investments in game-changing technologies as part of ongoing digital transformation efforts. “Technical debt is anything that hinders a company […]

Breaking the Bank (Technology Stack): Why Connection Beats Collection in Digital Transformation

Financial institutions sometimes mistake layering in solutions with digital transformation. While new platforms might seem necessary, the separate technology stacks that run them can compound issues of siloed infrastructure, disconnected data and piecemeal workflows already turning function into friction in customer management. Users experience inconsistencies; staff sees inefficiency; and leadership wonders why growth has stalled despite heavy […]

Why Talent Remains Critical in Compliance Even in the AI Age

Artificial intelligence is moving deeper into compliance work, but the latest ProSight Compliance Outlook Survey suggests that banks are thinking about it not as a substitute for human judgment but as a force multiplier. AI can help teams monitor risk more effectively, but only if institutions also invest in the people who know how to question it, govern it, and explain what it is doing.  […]

How AI Is Rewriting How Banks Work

The most important banking question about AI may no longer be where it can save time. It may be what happens to roles, skills, and decision-making once institutions start rebuilding work around it. A recent ProSight conversation with bank and industry leaders suggests those changes could run deeper than simple automation.  A few themes stand out:  The […]

Why Gen Z Could Reshape the Banking Relationship

Gen Z is often described as restless, digital, and quick to switch financial providers. But Bill Hampton, president of payments provider Primax, paints a fuller picture in a recent ProSight Quick Q&A: this is also a generation shaped by instability, focused on financial wellness, and poised to become a major force in the future of financial services.  […]

Banks Look Stronger, but the OCC’s Watch List Is Growing

The OCC’s spring Semiannual Risk Perspective begins from a position of strength. Bank earnings improved in 2025, supported by loan growth and lower funding costs. Balance sheets remain strong, with capital ratios and liquidity “high by historical standards,” and credit risk across the federal banking system remains manageable in the aggregate. First-quarter 2026 earnings releases, the OCC says, suggest those trends have generally continued.  […]

Community Bank Voices: AI and the Human Value Proposition

Community banks are built on personal connections. While technology is core to service, the human touch remains a top draw at smaller institutions for customers and staff alike. Preserving this people-centric sensibility is vital, say community bank leaders, as artificial intelligence begins infusing operations and performing tasks people once did. Though usually following their big-bank […]

Operational Excellence Through People and Processes

In May’s ProSight Executive Report, we explore ways banks and credit unions are refining operations and reimagining work with people in mind to yield better and more efficient results for their institutions.

What’s Driving the Proposed Changes in MRA Issuance, and What They Mean for Banks

Over a three-decade career at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Kris McIntire’s duties included overseeing community, mid-size, and large banks. He served as the examiner-in-charge at three major financial institutions, had a role on the OCC’s National Risk Committee, and was named an international member of the Basel Committee on Bank […]

Why Faster Payments Are Raising the Compliance Stakes

Faster payments and digital transactions are often framed as a customer experience story. But the just-released 2026 ProSight Compliance Outlook Survey suggests they are also becoming a compliance story—especially as fraud adapts to speed, scale, and AI. The issue is no longer just that digital payments are growing. It is that as funds move faster […]

Stablecoins Are Raising Strategic Questions Banks Can No Longer Ignore

Stablecoins may still be a limited part of banking today, but they are starting to force bigger strategic decisions. Joseph Cox, a partner at Oliver Wyman and former Federal Reserve supervisor, recently told ProSight that the real question for banks is no longer whether stablecoins matter. It is how quickly the market may develop, what the rules will look like, and […]

The 2026 ProSight Compliance Outlook Survey: Relaxed Regulation, Steady Vigilance

This report is based on the 2026 ProSight Financial Association Compliance Outlook Survey, which was conducted online in the first quarter of 2026, gathering 150 responses from a range of compliance leaders at financial institutions of all sizes.  Find out more about the survey, including the demographic profile of respondents, here. A downloadable version of this report is […]

More Flexibility, More Judgment in Model Risk

The federal banking agencies’ revised model risk management guidance looks, at first glance, like a simplification story. The new framework is shorter, more principles-based, and less prescriptive than the guidance many banks have been living under since 2011. But the practical effect may be more complicated: institutions now have more room to tailor model risk […]

The Top Issues in Financial Industry Compliance

Financial institutions are “operating in a paradox—lower federal oversight but higher, more complex compliance demands.” That is how Christopher J. Boersma, ProSight’s product manager of compliance with learning and development, sums up the environment captured in the 2026 ProSight Compliance Outlook Survey, which will be released May 6. The survey, based on 150 responses from […]

What the GENIUS Act Could Mean for Model Risk Teams

For model validation teams, the GENIUS Act is not just a stablecoin policy story. In Kevin Oden’s telling, it is also adds to the terrain model risk management may need to cover.  In a recent ProSight Q&A, Oden, principal of Kevin Oden & Associates, argues that the law and the OCC’s follow-on proposed rulemaking put model risk […]

Deposit Growth Is Getting More Concentrated—and More Strategic

Deposit gathering is not getting easier. In April’s ProSight Executive Report, “Deposit Optimization Strategies,” Katie Kuehner-Hebert’s article “The Quest for Deposits in Uncertain Times” makes clear that banks and credit unions are operating in a market shaped by inflation pressure, an unclear path for rates, and sharper competition for customer dollars.  The good news is that deposits did grow […]

What the Efficiency Ratio Misses

The efficiency ratio still has a place in banking. But on its own, it can tell a flatter story than many institutions can afford to believe.  Steve SaLoutos, chief financial officer at ProSight, and Mark Leher, director of product management at Alkami, say that the efficiency ratio still matters, but it now needs to be read with more […]

Fraud Is Getting Faster in the AI Era

Banks have been dealing with AI-enabled fraud for years, but the current moment looks different in at least one important way: the tools are becoming easier for less sophisticated criminals to use. A recent ProSight piece on fraud mitigation makes clear that while existing controls still matter, banks now need more speed, more layers, and more coordination—both inside […]

Mythos Is a Warning Shot for Bank Cybersecurity

Anthropic’s new Mythos Preview model is not just another AI release for banks to keep an eye on. It is an early glimpse of what happens when AI becomes much better at finding software flaws and turning them into usable attacks.  That is why the rollout has been unusually limited. Bloomberg reports that U.S. officials recently urged major […]

A Call to Action With Mythos in View

Financial services companies can find it hard to keep pace with fast-advancing technology, but digital change and risk management have become part of the industry’s DNA. What happens, though, when breakthroughs in capabilities are seismic and sudden, threatening the industry’s technology status quo and the potential safety and soundness of the banking business model? Anthropic’s […]

A Preview of ProSight’s GCOR Conference

ProSight Financial Association’s annual Governance, Compliance, and Operational Resiliency (GCOR) conference goes live June 8 and runs through June 11. To help attendees and prospective viewers navigate the packed agenda, ProSight spoke with the conference’s programming leaders, Sylwia Czajkowska, associate director of ORM/ERM, and Chris Boersma in learning & development, about the philosophy and practical […]

Banks Weigh Stablecoins as Regulation, Competition, and Deposit Economics Evolve

Stablecoins and other digital assets are moving from the fringes of finance into the strategic planning discussions of banks, as regulators, technology providers and customers begin to settle on how these instruments might be used at scale. While adoption remains limited, the pace of regulatory activity and innovation is forcing financial institutions to confront how […]

Financial Institution Fraud Mitigation: Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities

As fraud schemes become more prevalent and sophisticated, aided and abetted by AI, fraud mitigation has become a top priority for banks. What are the most effective anti-fraud tools and techniques for banks to employ, and how are they accounting for the complex threats presented by AI? These were among the key issues addressed during […]

How Banks Can Respond to a Tightening Market for Appraisers

For banks trying to keep real estate-secured transactions moving, appraiser capacity is becoming harder to ignore.  A recent ProSight article by retired FDIC appraisal subject matter expert Beverlea Gardner points to a market that looks increasingly strained. Since the number of appraisers peaked in 2007, productivity gains and generally steady loan demand have helped absorb some of the […]

Teaching Compliance With AI Still Requires Human Judgment

Banks looking at AI for training and development should not mistake scale for autonomy. In a recent ProSight article, Steven Ramirez, CEO of financial services consultancy Beyond the Arc, says the case for AI in compliance learning is not that it can replace people—it is that, if built and governed carefully, it can help institutions create […]

How Banks Can Be Less Easy To Buy

A group of people in business attire sit around a conference table having a meeting in a modern office with large windows.

Bank leaders usually think about performance through the eyes of regulators, directors, and shareholders. In a recent SouthState Correspondent Division article, Chris Nichols argues they should also think about how their bank looks to a potential buyer.  Nichols says banks that get acquired often share a recognizable profile. Some of it is qualitative, including culture. But much of it is […]

Achieving Institutional Efficiency While Honoring Strategy and Complexity

For generations of bankers, the efficiency ratio has been a shorthand for performance, a simple way to understand how much it costs an institution to generate a dollar of revenue. But as banking strategies diverge, technology reshapes operations, and customer behavior shifts, this once‑straightforward metric has become more complex. In a recent ProSight Financial Association […]

How Competitive Are Your Deposit Incentives in 2026?

The majority of financial institutions (82%) expect 2026 to bring positive deposit growth, according to ProSight Banking Outlook: 2026 Trends. However, consumer sentiment remains tentative amid persistent economic and geopolitical uncertainty. These dynamics create a challenging landscape for financial institutions as their deposit growth projections clash head-on with fragile consumer confidence. Incentives are a core […]

Model Risk, Stablecoins, and the GENIUS Act

Enactment of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) subsequent proposed rulemaking mark a pivotal moment for financial institutions engaging with payment stablecoins, Kevin Oden, principal of Kevin Oden & Associates, a San Francisco-based consulting firm specializing in model risk […]