What’s coming for the banking industry in 2025

Banking Dive takes a look at several trend areas — from M&A to regulation — to give its best guess on developments to come this year. But as observers in the ESG sector will tell it, change has been rapid and thorough.

By Banking Dive staff • Jan. 31, 2025

Why climate alliance memberships are no longer ‘en vogue’ for Wall Street

Financial institutions have increasingly departed groups like the Net-Zero Banking Alliance and Climate Action 100+, but experts say banks are still committed to sustainability.

By Zoya Mirza • Jan. 31, 2025

Explore the Trendline➔

Artificial intelligence

Banks are enthusiastic about AI’s promises. But can they get customers on board, and will regulators let the innovation happen?

By Banking Dive staff

M&T Bank names new risk chief

Neeraj Singh was most recently CRO at USAA, and previously held risk management positions at Citi, TD and Barclays.

By Gabrielle Saulsbery • Jan. 28, 2025

State AGs threaten financial institutions over ESG, DEI policies

JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and BlackRock were all asked about how they plan to implement or have implemented hiring or supplier diversity goals.

By Lamar Johnson • Jan. 27, 2025

Patriot Bank, OCC ink deal over ‘troubled’ condition

The Connecticut lender is taking remedial steps after the OCC found “unsafe or unsound practices” and violations related to strategic and capital planning and AML risk management. 

By Rajashree Chakravarty • Jan. 22, 2025

Chicago’s Pulaski Savings Bank is 2025’s first to fail in US

Illinois-based Millennium Bank acquired Pulaski’s deposits and most of its assets. The FDIC said the collapse will cost $28.5 million to the Deposit Insurance Fund, citing suspected fraud.

By Gabrielle Saulsbery • Jan. 21, 2025

Capital One outage spans days, hits thousands

Third-party vendor FIS blamed a local power loss and hardware failure for the issue, which Bank of Oklahoma said affected more than two dozen financial institutions.

By Dan Ennis • Jan. 21, 2025

FDIC sues 17 ex-SVB executives in alleged ‘gross negligence’

The complaint filed Thursday includes the former CEO and CFO of the failed California-based bank, four other ex-executives and 11 former directors. 

By Rajashree Chakravarty • Jan. 17, 2025

TD slashes pay for 41 execs, expedites Chun’s start date

Compensation cuts reflect “the seriousness of the U.S. [anti-money laundering] failures, the associated costs to the Bank, and the limitations imposed on the U.S. retail business,” the bank said Friday.

By Caitlin Mullen • Jan. 17, 2025

KeyBank hires next CRO from Truist

Mo Ramani replaces Darrin Benhart, who will move into a newly created role as Key’s chief regulatory officer, a spokesperson for the bank said.

By Dan Ennis • Jan. 16, 2025

Block agrees to pay $255M to regulators for Cash App deficiencies

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said the payments provider “employed weak security protocols for Cash App and put its users at risk.”

By Lynne Marek • Jan. 16, 2025

U.S. Bank scouts for agentic AI as age of ‘do it for me’ awaits

The super-regional’s chief innovation officer said there’s a fine line between being proactive and helpful, versus being proactive and creepy. “We don’t want to cross the creepy line,” he said.

By Caitlin Mullen • Jan. 16, 2025

BMO to pay $40.6M over ‘misleading’ mortgage-backed bonds

The bank’s employees spoke about changing the bonds' "cosmetics" to boost sales, the SEC alleged. They included a sliver of higher-interest mortgages into otherwise low-risk offerings, the agency said.

By Dan Ennis • Jan. 16, 2025

BaaS outlook brighter after period of growing pains

Regulatory scrutiny of the banking-as-a-service model won’t disappear, but the number of BaaS-related enforcement actions this year is expected to be more of a trickle than a flood.

By Caitlin Mullen • Jan. 15, 2025

FDIC’s Gruenberg cautions against ‘complacency,’ urges strong supervision

The outgoing FDIC chair, speaking Tuesday at the Brookings Institution, shared lessons learned from bank crises “as we head into a period of uncertainty about the future path of financial regulation.”

By Caitlin Mullen • Jan. 15, 2025

FDIC’s Hill sets out priorities for agency’s ‘new direction’

The agency’s vice chair anticipates a shift in bank supervision that emphasizes core financial risks over a process-related focus.

By Caitlin Mullen • Jan. 13, 2025

6 banking trends to watch in 2025

Donald Trump’s return to the White House is expected to make an impression on a number of facets in banking – from regulation to M&A to crypto.

By Dan Ennis , Rajashree Chakravarty , Caitlin Mullen , Gabrielle Saulsbery • Jan. 8, 2025

TD’s next CEO talks about AML fiasco

Raymond Chun, appearing Tuesday at an investor conference, said the bank’s AML debacle underscored the importance of talent and external benchmarking.

By Caitlin Mullen • Jan. 7, 2025

Kansas bank challenges $20M FDIC penalty

CBW Bank, charged with failing to maintain adequate anti-money laundering controls, has filed a lawsuit challenging the agency’s action, calling the penalty “unreasonable and unprecedented for a bank of this size.”

By Caitlin Mullen • Jan. 3, 2025

Flagstar fined $3.5M for ‘misleading’ after 2021 cyberattack

The bank “negligently made” materially misleading statements after a hack that resulted in the theft of 1.5 million customers’ personally identifying information.

By Gabrielle Saulsbery • Dec. 19, 2024

OCC slaps USAA over failure to fix flaws in several areas

The order blasts the bank’s management, IT, compliance and suspicious activity reporting. It also limits new products or services and restricts USAA’s ability to expand its membership criteria.

By Caitlin Mullen • Dec. 19, 2024

FDIC weighs lawsuit against ex-SVB execs

The regulator is considering taking legal action against six former officers and 11 former directors of Silicon Valley Bank over their role in the bank’s collapse and $23 billion hit to the Deposit Insurance Fund.

By Caitlin Mullen • Dec. 18, 2024

FDIC’s readiness ‘not sufficiently mature’ in 2023 bank crisis: OIG

The inspector general laid out 11 recommendations to improve the agency's response, in a report Wednesday.

By Gabrielle Saulsbery • Dec. 13, 2024

Ex-TD employee charged in money laundering case

Leonardo Ayala, 24, issued dozens of debit cards linked to accounts opened by another TD employee in the names of shell companies, and received bribes for that work, the Justice Department alleged.

By Dan Ennis • Dec. 11, 2024

Wells Fargo’s Scharf calls for capital requirements clarity

The bank’s CEO on Wednesday called uncertainty around how much extra capital banks will be required to hold “a crazy way to run a system.”

By Caitlin Mullen • Dec. 11, 2024