Key regulatory changes and business trends will drive bank mergers and acquisitions in 2019, two top bank deal lawyers say on the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast.

Look for 2019 bank mergers to be driven by large deals in metro markets, smaller banks on the buy side and de novo groups acquiring rural banks.

In a live interview on Bloomberg today, ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols outlined three key policy priorities that ABA is looking to in 2019.

As part of an ongoing review of the safety and soundness exam process, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council today issued a second update on progress made to date.

The Federal Reserve today issued its highly anticipated proposed framework for applying enhanced prudential standards to banking firms with $100 billion or more in assets, as required by S. 2155, the regulatory reform law.

In a letter to Federal Reserve Vice Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles today, six Republican senators called on the Fed to more closely tailor regulations for banks with more than $100 billion in assets.

In remarks at ABA’s Summer Leadership Meeting in Salt Lake City today, Federal Reserve Vice Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles signaled that the Fed would act sooner than required by S. 2155 to tailor prudential standards for banks between $100 billion and $250 billion in assets.

The Federal Reserve will move to implement the provisions of S. 2155 -- the new regulatory reform law -- as quickly as possible, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said in testimony before the Senate Banking Committee today.

The federal financial regulatory agencies have published in the Federal Register a long-awaited set of proposed changes to the Volcker Rule that are expected to simplify the rule’s compliance burden and better target its effects toward intended activities.

In addition to outlining their approach to company-run stress testing and enhanced prudential standards in light of the new regulatory reform law, the agencies today also announced how they intend to approach the implementation of several other provisions of S. 2155.