What a CLARITY-free crypto market structure looks like; Small firms hate SBA’s new size standards; lenders are intrigued—and more in Bankers’ Hours

Sign up here to receive American Banker’s complete Bankers’ Hours newsletter — delivered to your inbox every morning.

With prospects for the much-anticipated crypto market structure legislation dimming, some agencies are starting to chart a course for their own rulemaking.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has begun moving forward with crypto rulemaking, while the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has signaled it could pursue its own rules if the CLARITY Act fails to pass.

“I had roughly 40% odds on this becoming law this year, and now I’m down to 25% … maybe even trending lower,” said Ian Katz, managing director of Capital Alpha Partners. More here.

According to the SBA, the changes it unveiled last week would result in an additional 114,500 companies qualifying as small businesses. That would likely increase the number of established borrowers that meet the criteria for government-backed loans, boosting the appeal of the SBA’s lending programs among banks and credit unions. The proposal would also expand the pool of companies eligible for government contracting set-asides.

The proposed changes are getting a favorable early reception from SBA lenders, but much less so from small-business owners that do business with the federal government. More here.

Shareholder activism at banks is not expected to die down in the latter part of 2026, as some investors continue to use their ownership stakes to push for managerial and operational changes.

Public demands by activists escalated during the second half of last year, when several regional banks were targeted by a South Florida-based investment firm whose demands ranged from  revising capital priorities to swearing off mergers and acquisitions to ousting the CEO. The activist firm, HoldCo Asset Management, called for some of the targeted banks to sell, and in one case, it did: Comerica in Dallas was ultimately acquired by Ohio’s Fifth Third Bancorp earlier this year. More here.

Sign up here to receive American Banker’s complete Bankers’ Hours newsletter — delivered to your inbox every morning.

The Justice Department and FBI seized platforms on Wednesday that China state-sponsored hackers used to target critical U.S. infrastructure.

The details the government shared about the case affect all banks (which are considered critical infrastructure), and especially point to the dangers of not patching software vulnerabilities in a timely manner.

An FBI affidavit filed in federal court in San Diego documents the campaign; the attackers stole server configuration files and user account details from more than 300 organizations in the United States in a single 2024 campaign. Financial institutions were among the victims. More here.

Regional lenders Truist Financial Corp. and Fifth Third Bancorp have paused distribution of products tied to billionaire financier Mark Walter’s biggest insurance firm, according to people with knowledge of the decisions.

The banks are tapping the brakes on their role as sale channels for Delaware Life Insurance Co. amid a US probe of Walter’s sprawling business empire that has cast a shadow over credit ratings for the provider of annuities and life insurance, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public.

The lenders had made the insurer’s products available through branches or adviser networks with the underlying risk of the insurance and market borne by the insurer itself. More here.

Sign up here to receive American Banker’s complete Bankers’ Hours newsletter — delivered to your inbox every morning.