ABA Banking Journal Podcast

The Erie Canal — one of the biggest milestones of American history — celebrated the bicentennial of its completion this week. On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, acclaimed economic historian and Banking Journal columnist John Steele Gordon and editor-in-chief Evan Sparks discuss the canal's development and construction, the involvement of the Savings Bank of New York in financing it, how it transformed New York and the Midwest, and how the canal created future demand for mass transport of goods by other means, helping fuel the republic's development as a commercial powerhouse.

Blend's Intelligent Origination — an AI-powered orchestration layer embedded in Blend's platform that reduces the cost of loan origination, improves speed and accuracy, and redefines how lenders and borrowers experience the lending process.

PNC Bank is the nation’s eighth-largest bank by assets and the sixth-largest by deposits, but it ranks fourth in the number of physical branches. In a time when many banks are streamlining their in-person service locations, why has PNC doubled down on branches? On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, PNC executive Jeff Martinez explores: most recently in Colorado with FirstBank

With equipment repair costs up 40% over the past few years, how farmers deploy expensive agricultural machinery is of top concern for ag bankers. With equipment increasingly complex and often software driven, many equipment manufacturers have limited the ability of operators to repair their equipment without voiding warranties — leading to delays and lost harvests as farmers wait for service amid a shortage. While this trend has led to a “right to repair” movement in many states, the issue of equipment costs and lost revenue during breakdowns remains a factor in lending decisions, says Pat Kussman, president and CEO of Regional Missouri Bank and chairman of the Missouri Bankers Association. “There are many things that are eroding at our cash flow for our farmers,” he notes, “not just input costs, but land rent costs and equipment repair costs.” Kussman also discusses the state of the used equipment market, how farmers are using drones to manage crops less invasively and the growing role of artificial intelligence tools in functions like disease identification This episode is presented by Agri-Access. ABA Agricultural Bankers Conference

Banks have been using natural language processing and machine learning applications for years in managing their anti-money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act obligations. But how does the growing adoption of generative AI tools affect how BSA and fraud professionals protect their banks? On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — presented by Agri-Access — former FDIC official Lisa Arquette shares a regulator’s-eye view of generative AI in the BSA world and how regulators have been approaching the technology for their own work. Joined by ABA SVP Heather Trew, Arquette also discusses: Register for the ABA Financial Crimes Enforcement Conference, Oct. 14-16 in Arlington, Virginia.

In the wake of the summer’s Genius Act, many banks and nonbanks have announced new stablecoin initiatives. Another digital asset — tokenized deposits — may meet needs similar to stablecoins, but the two asset types have significantly different features based on their underlying designs. On this episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, ABA experts Brooke Ybarra and Yikai Wang discuss:

Princess Castleberry began her career in risk management in financial services, and the biggest risk she sees today is that “leaders are in a capacity crisis.” Work experience, education and professional networks are undermined by this lack of capacity driven by emotional triggers, she says, which are in turn compounded by a massive wave of societal, economic and technological change. Now an instructional design expert and leadership speaker, Castleberry discusses how leaders can understand and manage triggers to enhance their capacity to lead with empathy. Castleberry will also be discussing these and other topics — including how to reduce “conflict waste” — at the ABA Annual Convention next month in Charlotte.

The rapid evolution of the financial services marketplace means the market for banking as a service is also evolving rapidly. From artificial intelligence to other new technologies to regulatory expectations, how is the partner bank sector shifting? On the season premiere of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, Pathward Bank CEO Brett Pharr talks about the Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based partner bank’s strategy. Among other things, Pharr discusses:

The U.S. is experiencing a massive demographic shift driven by the aging Baby Boom generation, declining birth rates and shifts in immigration trends. What effect will aging have on the banking outlook? In the season finale of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, ABA economist JP Rothenberg discusses how America’s aging population: Shifts balance sheet management strategies with a surplus of stable deposits by weaker localized loan demand.the risk profile

Alongside the commercial and consumer markets, institutional banking is one of three strategic pillars of $70 billion-asset UMB Bank. On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, UMB’s Phil Mason discusses: recent expansion in HSA eligibility

What does the future hold for bank risk and compliance professionals? On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, Krysti Cunningham of Security National Bank in Omaha, Nebraska — and winner of the 2025 Distinguished Service Award for Risk and Compliance — discusses:

Following the enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, hear from ABA experts on how key ABA-supported provisions on tax policy, rural real estate and health savings accounts in the budget reconciliation law will affect banks. Experts also discuss what to expect next in terms of implementation. Resources Click here to download the episode if you can’t see the player above.View a members-only staff analysis

ABA’s new online platform to provide members with free access to the Treasury Check Verification System is now live. On a special joint episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast and ABA Fraudcast — presented by Intrafi’s Banking with Interest podcast — ABA anti-fraud experts Paul Benda and Hannah Ibberson discuss the platform and how banks can put it to use. Among other topics, Benda and Ibberson discuss: Click here to download the episode if you can’t see the player above.Access the TCVS portal

Amid tariff-related volatility, how are small and midsize businesses and the banks that serve them faring? On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — presented by Intrafi’s Banking with Interest podcast — John Buran, the president and CEO of Queens-based Flushing Financial discusses how tariff and trade policy-related volatility has compounded commercial client uncertainty based on interest rates over recent months and why uncertainty has slowed loan growth and investment. However, Buran also notes that lending has improved in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, “possibly associated with the Fed keeping rates stable since the middle of the middle of last year. So I think that has helped somewhat. Banks are staying very close to their customers . . . so that they can come out the on other side in a favorable position.” Buran also discusses opportunities for community banks to gain market share in the New York City metro area real estate market and the potential for regulatory change under newly confirmed Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman.

Jim Ryan has led Old National Bank through a massive wave of growth — through major mergers and organic growth, the Evansville, Indiana-based bank has reached $70 billion in assets and a footprint that extends from Minnesota to Tennessee. The bank has grown by 250% since Ryan moved into the CEO role in 2019. On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — presented by Intrafi’s Banking with Interest podcast — Ryan discusses: on-fire Indiana Feverchair of the American Bankers Council Ryan also discusses the experience of leading Old National through the devastating mass shooting at a Louisville, Kentucky, bank branch in 2023 — a tragedy that claimed the lives of 5 victims, all of them bank employees. “We always felt like we were a family, but that definition of family was completely reinforced,” he says. “After you go through a tragedy like that, it takes a lot of love, it takes a lot of support, and it takes a lot of care.”

So-called “First Amendment auditors” have long filmed themselves trying to provoke police and other public officials into stopping them from recording in public settings. Now, some auditors are targeting banks, filming for hours outside bank branches and seeking to goad bank employees into calling law enforcement. The latest episode — presented by Intrafi’s Banking with Interest podcast — features tips from bankers and security professionals on how to handle a First Amendment auditor at a bank location while protecting bank employees and customers. ABA Banking JournalAccess tips

As independently owned and operated small businesses, fast-food restaurant franchisees have unique business needs. They have mobile and often part-time workforces, complex inventory management and the constant challenge of managing both a small business and being the face of a major brand. On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by Bix2x — Wendell Bontrager talks about how Sonata Bank is working with this unique market segment. For example, “we can come in at fractional costs to provide them things like telehealth, mobile phone insurance, pet insurance, in a way that is free to the employee but is done and sold through the franchisee,” says Bontrager. He outlines Sonata’s business of lending to “quick-service” restaurants, as they’re often called in the trade, paired with employee benefits, treasury management and a software-as-a-service platform for QSRs. Bontrager also talks about the health of the Nashville, Tennessee, market where Sonata’s community bank franchise is headquartered and how the organization has been able to capture talent with hybrid and remote workplace offerings.

Government-guaranteed lending requires special expertise and back-office functionality that grows increasingly expensive for smaller banks. On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by Bix2x — Chris Hurn and Jeremy Gilpin of Community Bankshares, a bank holding company in La Grange, Georgia, discuss how they are tackling that challenge. “To start one of these departments is very expensive for a lot of rural banks and credit unions,” says Gilpin, “It’s very prohibitive to enter the market space if you are a rural bank or even in an urban market where you do you know, maybe 5, 10, 20 of these loans a year.” Hurn and Gilpin are part of a team that has built Community Bankshares, parent of Community Bank and Trust of West Georgia, into a network of Small Business Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture lending subsidiaries that work on a nationwide basis. They developed a model that allows the “the holding company [to] serve as a source of strength for the bank, not just the other way around, which is typical,” says Gilpin. Gilpin and Hurn discuss the company’s role as a white label lender, referral lender, participation partner or servicer for smaller banks that want to connect their clients to guaranteed loans and the strength of the bank model for supporting these businesses and agricultural enterprises.

Quantum computing is an entirely new way of processing information, and it has the power to solve extremely difficult computational problems much more quickly than binary computers. As the technology continues to advance, the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by Intrafi’s Banking with Interest — explores how payments and banking might be affected by the technology. Among other topics, the episode addresses: This episode is presented by Intrafi’s Banking with Interest. Resources: quantum computing and paymentspost-quantum cryptography