Bank Forward - September 2026
Your mid-month pulse on the signals shaping community & regional banking.
I came away from last week's Finovate Fall with one question still rattling around in my head: Who owns the customer when technology increasingly influences the choice? That conversation reinforced something we've been watching all year: the institutions your members and customers will be comparing you to in 2027 are not the same ones they were comparing you to in 2023.
Three neobanks made major moves this month. AI is becoming embedded in banking operations as infrastructure, not simply as a tool. And the charter landscape keeps reshaping itself in ways that reward institutions paying close attention.
The environment isn't just changing around community banks and credit unions anymore — it's changing toward them.
Signal #1 | The neobank threat just got real
What's happening
Three developments this month collectively redefine the competitive landscape for community banks and credit unions.
First, and most significantly, Chime announced it is acquiring Stride Bank — the Oklahoma-based national bank that has served as Chime's sponsor bank — for $590 million in cash. The deal, expected to close in the first half of 2027, will rebrand Stride as Chime Bank and create what Chime CEO Chris Britt calls a "full-stack platform built for the AI era."
Chime has been moving in this direction all year: workforce reductions in July, a stablecoin wallet under consideration in August, and now a national bank charter in September. The pattern is deliberate.
Chime is done renting regulatory infrastructure. It's acquiring it outright.
Second, Nubank — the largest digital bank in Latin America with 140 million customers — launched in the United States through sponsor bank Lead Bank. Its initial offer includes a metal Mastercard debit card paying 3.5% APY and a Mastercard credit card offering 1.5% rewards. Bundle the two with at least $3,000 in monthly direct deposits and customers can receive 4.5% APY on debit balances up to $10,000 and 2% rewards on credit card spending.
It's a direct offer aimed at exactly the engaged, higher-income customers community banks and credit unions most need to retain.
Third, Revolut received conditional OCC approval to operate as a full U.S. bank, putting the UK fintech on a path toward a more complete American banking presence by 2027. The approval still requires FDIC and Federal Reserve sign-off, but it's another indication that the U.S. charter system is becoming more accessible to credible global fintechs.
Why it matters
Chime changes the nature of the neobank threat. A fintech with 38 million members is acquiring its own charter and building what it calls a full-stack platform for the AI era. It isn't simply competing for underserved customers anymore; it's positioning for the primary account of mainstream America.
Nubank and Revolut show the threat isn't only domestic. Nubank arrives with 140 million customers, proven profitability, and a deposit offer community institutions will struggle to match on rate. Revolut's conditional approval puts another global fintech on a path toward full U.S. banking operations.
The competitive question is becoming more specific. It isn't whether these institutions will attract customers. It's which customers, in which markets, and how quickly. That also connects to the conversation I moderated at #FinovateFall last week: Who owns the customer when AI increasingly helps make the choice? As consumers delegate more search, comparison, and eventually transactions to AI agents, the competitive challenge changes. Being attractive to the customer still matters. But increasingly, institutions may also need to be discoverable, understandable, and preferable to the technology helping that customer decide.
Questions for your leadership / board
How are we monitoring Nubank, Chime Bank, and Revolut's market entry plans — and do we know whether they are targeting our specific geographies or customer segments?
As fintechs acquire bank charters and AI changes how consumers compare financial providers, are we clear about what makes our institution discoverable — and preferable — beyond rate and convenience?
Are we having proactive conversations with our best deposit customers and members about the value we provide before they start comparing us with new entrants on their own?
Signal #2 | AI is becoming banking infrastructure
What's happening
Three developments this month suggest that AI in banking is crossing from tool to operating layer.
Google Cloud unveiled Gemini Enterprise for Financial Services, a purpose-built agentic AI platform designed to automate complex banking and capital-markets workflows. It includes a Google-managed financial research agent, more than 50 new skills, enterprise data connectors, and an expanding third-party agent ecosystem. Google is positioning the platform as infrastructure for financial institutions of different sizes, not simply the largest banks.
Meanwhile, Visa, Mastercard, and Ant International launched a "Know Your Agent" interoperability framework designed to establish standardized identity, authorization, and risk controls for AI agents making purchases on behalf of users. It begins addressing a question we've been tracking all year: if AI agents can initiate transactions for consumers, how do we authenticate them, establish consent, assign liability, and resolve disputes?
And U.S. Bank completed a live cross-border stablecoin payment pilot using its dollar-backed USBDC stablecoin to move funds between its North American and European entities. The pilot tested issuance, transfer, redemption, and compliance controls. It's significant because it shows a large regulated U.S. bank treating stablecoins as a controlled, always-on alternative to slower correspondent-bank settlement — not simply as a digital-asset experiment.
Why it matters
AI capabilities are increasingly arriving as infrastructure, not standalone tools. For community institutions, the practical question is when these capabilities reach you through your core and other technology partners — and how much influence you'll have over their implementation.
"Know Your Agent" begins building the trust infrastructure required for agentic commerce.Authentication, authorization, fraud, liability, and dispute resolution all become more complicated when software can act on a customer's behalf. Those aren't distant technology questions; they're emerging banking-governance questions.
Stablecoins are becoming an operational banking issue. U.S. Bank's pilot is another indication that large regulated institutions increasingly see the technology as potential payments and settlement infrastructure. For community institutions, particularly those serving commercial customers, the question is becoming less "Will this happen?" and more "When does this become relevant to us?"
Questions for your leadership / board
How is our core technology provider positioning itself as AI becomes embedded in banking infrastructure — and are we actively engaged in understanding its roadmap?
Do we understand how emerging "Know Your Agent" standards could affect our fraud, liability, authorization, and dispute-resolution processes?
Are we treating stablecoin infrastructure as an operational and commercial-banking question rather than purely a digital-asset question?
Signal #3 | New competitors want in, while community-based institutions are performing
What's happening
Block — the parent company of Square and Cash App — submitted an OCC application to establish Builders Bank & Trust, N.A., a proposed national trust bank that would provide custody and fiduciary services for Bitcoin and stablecoins. The proposed institution would not be a conventional lender or deposit-taking bank. Instead, it would give Block a uniform federal supervisory framework for digital-asset custody activities that are increasingly central to its payments and business strategy.
The application adds another name to a growing roster of nontraditional entrants seeking federal banking credentials — alongside Revolut, Payoneer, Klarna, and others in the regulatory pipeline.
The pattern is becoming difficult to miss: companies that built significant financial-services businesses outside the regulated banking system increasingly see federal banking credentials as strategic infrastructure worth the compliance cost.
Against that backdrop, recent bank and credit union performance offers an important counterpoint. The 3,818 community banks in the FDIC's dataset earned $8.7 billion in Q2 2026, up 8.2% from the first quarter. Pretax return on assets rose to 1.53%. Net interest margin widened 10 basis points to 3.81%. Loans grew 1.6% during the quarter and 5.1% year over year.
Credit unions are showing resilience as well. The latest NCUA data show federally insured credit union net income up 30.5% from a year earlier, with assets, loans, and aggregate membership all growing.
Why it matters
Block reinforces a pattern we've been watching all year. Companies that built substantial financial businesses outside traditional banking increasingly see federal credentials as strategic infrastructure. Block's proposed trust bank is narrower than a commercial bank charter, but the direction is the same.
At the same time, community banks and credit unions are hardly businesses in retreat. Recent FDIC and NCUA data show both sectors entering this more competitive environment from positions of relative strength. That's useful context for boards confronting new competition: new entrants want into banking because banking remains an attractive business.
Established community institutions still have advantages that take years to build. Regulatory track records, local knowledge, community trust, and operational depth are real advantages. But they're not permanent without deliberate investment.
Questions for your leadership / board
Are we monitoring which companies are entering the regulatory pipeline in our markets and lending segments — and do we understand how their entry could change our competitive position?
What do the latest industry performance data tell us about our own results relative to peers — and where are we ahead of, or behind, the average?
Closing Insight
September's signals share a thread that's been building in Bank Forward all year: the institutions competing for your customers and members are no longer just the banks and credit unions across the street.
They're AI-native platforms acquiring national bank charters. They're Latin American banking giants with 140 million customers. They're global fintechs moving deeper into the U.S. banking system. And increasingly, they're operating on technology and payments infrastructure that is changing not only the standard customers and members expect, but potentially how they decide which institution to choose in the first place.
None of that changes what community banks and credit unions do best. But it does change the urgency of doing it well — and the standard against which customers and members will increasingly measure their experience.
The latest FDIC and NCUA data show community banks and credit unions are performing. The competitive data show the environment is intensifying. Both things are true at the same time.
The institutions that hold their ground will be the ones that understand exactly what they're defending — and give customers, members, and increasingly the technology acting on their behalf a compelling reason to keep choosing them.
Quick ask: Which of these three signals is generating the most conversation at your institution right now — the neobank competitive threat, AI becoming banking infrastructure, or new entrants moving into banking? Leave a comment and I'll carry it into October.
P.S. One development to watch tomorrow: the Senate is scheduled to hold a cloture vote on the Clarity Actat 2:15 p.m. ET. We've been tracking the legislation since March, through its committee passage and August recess delay. Tomorrow's vote is the next procedural test: the bill needs 60 votes to advance to full floor debate.
Whatever happens tomorrow, the larger point hasn't changed. The market isn't waiting for legislative certainty. Stablecoin infrastructure, tokenized deposits, and agentic payments are all moving ahead while policymakers continue to debate the rules. For community banks and credit unions, waiting for Congress to settle every question before deciding what deserves attention is increasingly its own strategic choice.
