From one location in Wilmington, North Carolina, Live Oak Bank is the nation's largest Small Business Administration lender and a leading partner in developing technology for community banks. With an uncertain economic and business environment, two top executives from Live Oak Bank joined the ABA Banking Journal Podcast to discuss:

• How Live Oak delivers personalized banking services to a nationwide footprint.
• Where small business owners are looking to grow and build in the coming months.
• The need for liquidity in small business acquisitions and succession planning.
• The role of technology, including AI, in helping to improve the ability of banks to serve small business clients.
• How SBA loans fit into the Live Oak business model.
• Tips for community banks looking to deepen their SBA-guaranteed lending, including outsourcing back-office functions to ensure compliance with guarantee requirements.

If Texas were an independent country, its economy would rank as the world's eighth-largest. "France is the seventh largest economy in the world and I don't think it'll take as much time at all to catch them," laughs Texas Bankers Association Chairman Ron Butler. On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, Butler — who is also vice chairman and chief administrative officer of $14 billion-asset, Abilene-based First Financial Bank — talks about:

• What makes the Lone Star State a compelling economic story and an attractive market for investment (and out-of-state bank acquisitions).
• First Financial's approach to balancing organic growth and M&A.
• The urgency of accelerating de novo bank activity.
• How he and Texas bankers are approaching questions of deposit insurance reform.
• How Texas bankers have been engaging the global economy.

The discontinuation of penny production in 2025 caused operational challenges for banks when the regional Federal Reserve banks said they would stop accepting pennies for deposit at coin terminals -- accelerating the circulation shortage that's posing challenges for retailers. Today, the Fed reversed that decision, resuming deposits effective Jan. 14. On the latest episode of the podcast, ABA payments expert Steve Kenneally walks through the Fed's decision, the operational challenges the penny phaseout poses to retailers and banks, ABA's regulatory and legislative advocacy for improvements to the handling of coinage reform and ABA resources for banks, frontline staff and consumers.

• View ABA resources on the penny phaseout.

The Philippines is a fast-growing economy, but it lags its peers in the unbanked rate, with more than four in 10 Filipinos unbanked, according to McKinsey. Many Filipinos use nonbank-provided ewallets, but bank penetration is on the rise since 2020, when the central bank approved a new license type for digital banking, helping the Philippines' traditional banks meet the mobile-first needs of Filipinos. In this episode, Russell Hernandez of UnionDigital Bank provides a unique look into the Philippine banking sector. He also discusses how his mobile-first digital bank tackles account takeover attempts and other frauds through layers of mobile-based and biometric authentication.

The bank consolidation logjam broke in 2025, with several banks, including large regionals, inking major deals amid an accelerated pace for approvals. While that may reflect both pent-up deal flow and a rush to get transactions done in a favorable environment, on the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, Paul Davis notes that the rush is forcing everyone in the market to pay attention and be ready. Davis discusses how these factors, as well as the underlying forces driving consolidation, the capital markets environment and credit conditions will shape the mergers and acquisitions outlook throughout 2026.

Jon Sisk and Matt Lujano's banks couldn't be more different at first appearance — Sisk is a top executive at a community bank in Santa Cruz, California, near the beating heart of America's tech ecosystem, and Lujano leads a bank primarily based in a rural area of western Iowa where farming is dominant. But they share a positive outlook on the role of tech in community banking. As chair and vice chair, respectively, of ABA's Community Bankers Council, they reflected on what it means to be a tech-forward community bank in a podcast following the committee's recent D.C. meeting. Among other topics, they discuss:

• Forming AI brainstorming groups within banks to facilitate collaborative innovation.
• The use of generative AI tools to accelerate policy development and exam preparedness.
• Being ready to move quickly on stablecoins, tokenized deposits and digital assets, even if customers aren't demanding solutions.
• Good ideas surfaced in conversations among CBC members.

Stay tuned for more conversations on tech-forward community banking within the ABA Banking Journal Podcast channel.

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.

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