fc.The Financial CurrentPublished by Paul Ivinskas
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Credit Underwriting & PerformanceResearch Lab

Cash-flow underwriting: how lenders use bank-account data to decide who gets credit

Lenders are increasingly reading applicants' bank-account activity, with permission, to judge income, spending and cash cushions alongside credit scores. Synchrony, Huntington, Bank of America and the mortgage giants use it in real decisions, and Experian, FICO and Plaid launched new tools in 2026. Research shows a modest gain in predicting defaults, but the sources reviewed here do not establish lower losses or cheaper credit across the market.

27 sources13 versions
Embedded Finance & InfrastructureResearch Lab

Sponsor banking: the banks behind financial apps and cards

Many financial apps and cards run on a partner bank that holds the money, issues the cards or makes the loans, while a technology company runs the app. The model is growing, and some fintechs are now buying banks, but the 2024 Synapse failure showed that customers can lose access to money when the companies in between keep poor records. Regulators have proposed new guidance; it is not final.

24 sources11 versions
Equities, Derivatives & FundsResearch Lab

TQQQ versus QQQ since 2010: a far bigger gain, and an 82% fall on the way

From TQQQ's first trading day in February 2010 to October 2, 2026, $10,000 grew to about $3.95 million in the three-times leveraged fund and about $198,000 in QQQ, with distributions reinvested. On a closing total-return basis, TQQQ also fell 81.65% from its 2021 peak and needed more than three years to recover. Its daily leverage does not deliver three times the index's long-run return.

10 sources5 versions
Equities, Derivatives & FundsResearch Lab

SPY versus QQQ since 1999: QQQ ended ahead after a far deeper fall

From QQQ's March 1999 launch to October 2, 2026, $10,000 grew to about $174,168 in QQQ and $96,412 in SPY with dividends reinvested. On a closing total-return basis, QQQ first lost almost 83% from its 2000 peak and took until 2015 to regain it. SPY's worst loss, 55% in the financial crisis, was repaired by 2012.

11 sources3 versions
Cards & Consumer LendingResearch Lab

Buy now, pay later: how the loans work, who pays for them and what the rules are

Six large providers issued about $157 billion of US buy-now-pay-later credit in 2025, half of it as pay-in-four plans, by a Federal Reserve estimate. Merchants usually pay for interest-free plans. Funding arrangements vary by provider. About a quarter of users paid late in the past year, most loans still do not reach credit scores, and the 2024 federal interpretation treating BNPL like credit cards has been withdrawn.

19 sources2 versions
Embedded Finance & InfrastructureResearch Lab

Embedded finance: who stands behind the payment, account or loan inside an app

Embedded finance puts payments, accounts and loans inside software people already use. The screen belongs to one company, but a bank usually holds the deposits or makes the loans, under rules that still apply. Shopify and Stripe show how large the business is and who carries which role.

7 sources3 versions
Cards & Consumer LendingResearch Lab

Second-look financing: how checkout lending waterfalls work, who runs them and where lease-to-own fits

When a shopper is declined for a store's main financing, second-look programs pass the application to lenders that accept weaker credit, often ending with lease-to-own. Synchrony routes declines to Atlanticus's Fortiva programs, and contractor software from ServiceTitan chains prime lenders to a TURNS waterfall. Federal cases against lease-to-own providers produced a $175 million FTC settlement with Progressive in 2020, while CFPB suits against Snap and Acima were dropped in 2025.

13 sources4 versions
Cards & Consumer LendingResearch Lab

Store credit cards: who earns the money, what borrowers pay and how the risks show up

Store credit cards carried an average interest rate of 31.3% in 2024, about six points above general-purpose cards, and the number of open accounts has fallen by roughly a third from its peak, according to the CFPB. Banks such as Synchrony and Citibank usually own the loans, while retailers market the cards and receive a share of program income. Deferred-interest promotions, payment allocation rules and lender loss rates determine how costly the product becomes for borrowers.

15 sources3 versions
Banking & Market RegulationResearch Lab

Dodd-Frank: how the 2010 financial reform law was written, what it did and how it has changed

Signed by President Obama on July 21, 2010, the Dodd-Frank Act created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a systemic-risk council, brought derivatives under federal oversight and set tougher rules for the largest banks. Congress narrowed it in 2014 and 2018, courts reshaped the consumer bureau, and the Federal Reserve finalized new stress-test rules in September 2026 while capital proposals remain pending.

30 sources6 versions
Banking & Market RegulationResearch Lab

Basel III re-proposal: what US regulators proposed in 2026 and where it stands

In March 2026 the Federal Reserve, FDIC and OCC proposed three rules that would modestly cut capital requirements for the largest banks and cut them more for smaller ones, reversing the direction of a 2023 plan. Comments closed June 18, 2026. As of October 12 no final rule had been issued, though Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman has said she expects the Fed board to finalize capital reforms before the end of 2026.

17 sources10 versions
Payments, Data & Privacy LawResearch Lab

Open banking rule: what the CFPB's data-sharing rule requires and why it is on hold

The CFPB's 2024 open-banking rule lets consumers share their bank and card account data, free of charge, with services they choose, under limits on how recipients use it. A federal court has barred enforcement until the CFPB finishes reconsidering the rule, and a proposed revision has been under White House review since August 4, 2026 without being published.

18 sources8 versions
Payments, Data & Privacy LawResearch Lab

The GENIUS Act: the U.S. stablecoin law, its January 2027 start date and the rules still being written

The GENIUS Act, signed July 18, 2025, sets federal rules for dollar stablecoins: who may issue them, what must back them and how they are redeemed. As of October 12, 2026, regulators have proposed the main rules but finalized none of them, so the law's general effective date is set to arrive on January 18, 2027. Treasury's September 30 procedure for reviewing state regimes is in force, but states cannot file under it until a further Treasury notice.

13 sources8 versions
Embedded Finance & InfrastructureResearch Lab

Tokenized deposits and stablecoins: how bank tokens and the GENIUS Act draw the line

Big banks including JPMorgan, Citi and HSBC have built or piloted systems that move customer deposits as blockchain tokens, while dollar stablecoins issued outside the deposit system reached about $320 billion by May 2026. The GENIUS Act, signed July 18, 2025, says a deposit, even one recorded on a blockchain, is not a payment stablecoin. As of October 12, 2026, the main federal rules for stablecoin issuers were still proposals, and the law takes effect no later than January 18, 2027.

18 sources6 versions
Company & Platform ProfilesResearch Lab

Stablecore: software that lets community banks offer digital assets

Stablecore sells software that connects banks' existing systems to stablecoin, digital-asset and tokenized-deposit services run by partners such as Coinbase. It has raised $20 million and reached production on Q2's platform; public data on bank adoption and revenue remain limited.

30 sources6 versions
Embedded Finance & InfrastructureResearch Lab

BankChain Alliance: state bankers want banks to own a payment network

State bankers associations have formed an alliance to build a bank-owned blockchain payment network by 2027. It has a board, members and a dues schedule. It does not yet have a public technology partner, a public list of participating banks or a working service.

20 sources5 versions
Regulatory & Failure CasesResearch Lab

The bank failures of 2023: how SVB, Signature and First Republic fell

Three U.S. banks failed between March and May 2023. Their customers, assets and rescue attempts differed, but rapid withdrawals exposed weaknesses that had built up before the crisis. A federal judge ruled on August 28, 2026 that SVB’s former parent company cannot recover a $1.71 billion claim against the FDIC.

22 sources4 versions
Regulatory & Failure CasesResearch Lab

Lehman Brothers in 2008: the failed rescue and the long aftermath

Lehman’s September 2008 bankruptcy followed mounting property losses, shrinking access to cash and a failed rescue weekend. Barclays and Nomura took over businesses, while the Repo 105 investigation and separate creditor proceedings continued long after the collapse.

14 sources3 versions
Market Conduct & Failure CasesResearch Lab

Enron: how reported performance became detached from economic risk

Enron grew from pipelines into energy trading and investment, then used conflicted partnerships and misleading reporting to obscure risk. Internal warnings, public disclosures and a failed rescue exposed the dependence of its accounts, credit and liquidity on one another.

19 sources2 versions
Market Conduct & Failure CasesResearch Lab

FTX: customer assets, Alameda and the meaning of recovery

The rise and collapse of FTX connects an exchange, its affiliated trading firm, privileged access to customer money and a nine-day public unraveling. Criminal judgments and later cash recoveries answer different questions about what happened to customers and their assets.

24 sources3 versions
Interest Rates & Fixed IncomeResearch Lab

Why LIBOR ended: a benchmark lost its market

Manipulation damaged LIBOR’s credibility. The shrinking market behind it made replacement unavoidable, setting off a years-long effort to move loans and derivatives to new reference rates.

16 sources2 versions
Company & Platform ProfilesResearch Lab

Stripe expands the business around payments

Acquisitions have taken Stripe into usage-based billing and stablecoin infrastructure. Its proposed purchases of OpenRouter and Parafin would extend that work into AI-model routing and small-business financing.

26 sources4 versions
Market Conduct & Failure CasesResearch Lab

WorldCom: how ordinary network expenses became fictitious earnings

WorldCom grew through telecom acquisitions, then concealed deteriorating economics by turning operating expenses into assets. The full history connects the executives’ accounting decisions, Cynthia Cooper’s audit, bankruptcy, criminal cases and the different meanings of investor recovery.

18 sources4 versions

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