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This ABA Banking Journal newsletter is a free, twice-monthly supplement to the ABA Banking Journal magazine intended to help you stay on top of industry and policy news.
You can also stay abreast of banking news by visiting aba.com/BankingJournal, home to ABA Daily Newsbytes stories, digital exclusives, the ABA Banking Journal Podcast and more.
To help make sense of what’s coming next, ABA’s subject‑matter experts offer their perspective on the trends that will define 2026 and what they mean for banks right now. They highlight where customer needs are going, where compliance expectations are changing and where opportunities are emerging for banks to lead with clarity, trust and innovation.
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With a new crop of leaders in Washington now firmly in place, and with an effort to right-size regulation underway, the banking sector is well-positioned heading into 2026, even as some new and old challenges remain on the policy radar.
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How banks of all sizes are planning for the future of stablecoins, tokenized deposits and other digital assets.
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Community banks shouldn’t ignore stablecoins, which will create new business opportunities for the institutions but also pose a serious risk to their deposit base without proper regulation, according to bankers on a panel discussion at ABA’s Conference for Community Bankers.
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Banks and compliance teams are not supporting actors in the fentanyl crisis; they are part of an ensemble cast in identifying the transactional marks of a trade built to hide in plain sight.
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New research from a one-time Durbin defender shows debit card interchange fee caps distorted the payments ecosystem and failed to deliver promised savings. Doing the same for credit cards would be a similar costly mistake.
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The financial landscape of 2026 presents a unique paradox for American consumers. As we kick off National Credit Education Month, it is essential to look beyond the balance sheets and understand the pressures facing the modern borrower.
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Warning that banks cannot fight scams alone, bankers today told House lawmakers that federal agencies need to better coordinate their efforts to mitigate the problem and that social media providers and other technology providers also need to do their part.
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The House Financial Services Committee has advanced legislation to boost community banking by raising regulatory thresholds, revising agency supervisory practices, tailoring regulations further, encouraging de novo banks and strengthening community development financial institutions.
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Saying that bank liquidity is “the next big-ticket item” for regulatory reform, top officials at the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve outlined their case for revisiting the liquidity coverage ratio to recognize discount window borrowing capacity.
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ABA presented a list of banker priorities to be included in the 2026 Farm Bill ahead of a House Agriculture Committee markup of the legislation this week.
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The decision to grant a cryptocurrency firm a “limited-purpose” master account within the Federal Reserve System while crypto regulations are under consideration creates serious risk for consumers and the financial system, according to ABA.
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The Federal Reserve should adopt a long-term approach to phasing out its check services by encouraging electronic payment alternatives, and it should discontinue select paper check services that can be eliminated without causing unnecessary pain, the ABA and Consumer Bankers Association said in a joint letter.
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