September 15, 2023 Tuesday began like any other late summer workday. I dropped my daughter off at school and arrived a little late to my office at Bank of America Securities in midtown NYC about 8:30. From our perch on the 48th floor of 9 West 57th, we had a sweeping view of Central Park on one side of the building and a clear view of the twin towers about 4 miles to the south.

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September 7, 2023 Liquidity is a critical component of a bank's financial stability, impacting its ability to meet short-term financial obligations and weather unforeseen economic challenges. The ideal level of liquidity for a bank is influenced by a multitude of factors, including its size, business model, risk tolerance, and regulatory obligations.

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August 29, 2023 The Financial Services industry's increasing intricacy, combined with recent adverse events, has heightened regulatory scrutiny on banks. This is further compounded by liquidity challenges, creating a landscape of unprecedented risk management demands.

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August 25, 2023 The long-awaited new proposed capital rule has finally arrived, spanning well over a thousand pages and addressing precisely the anticipated points. This development has been long in the making, and many might express a collective "finally" in response. Approximately three decades ago, Value at Risk (VaR) established itself as a fundamental concept in financial risk analytics.

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August 18, 2023 The most common measure of money supply, M2, experienced a dramatic and historic run up in 2020-21. As a result of this influx of funds, and the many dislocations attributable to COVID, reducing the money supply to mute the effects of inflation became a strategic focus of the Federal Reserve in 2022 and 2023.

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August 8, 2023 2023 has proven to be a challenging year for financial institutions. Since early 2022, the Federal Reserve contracted the money supply through open market activities, driving rates up, and the value of long-term bonds held in bank portfolios down.

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July 17, 2023 Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is a term a lot of financial institutions are hearing about from their regulators this year. At its heart, ERM is a comprehensive and strategic approach to identifying, assessing, and managing risks across an organization.

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April 11, 2023 In the banking industry, crossing the $1 billion asset threshold is a significant milestone, both regulatory and strategic. At this point banks are subjected to increased regulatory scrutiny at this level, including the requirements of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act (FDICIA).

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