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| MARKETS — as of Oct 23, 6:22 AM ET |
Equity futures S&P7,690-0.19% Nasdaq29,146+0.01% Dow52,773-0.56% Rates 2-Year4.67%+4 bps 10-Year4.98%+3 bps SOFR3.88%0 bps Credit & risk High Yield3.27%-6 bps Crude101.00+1.54% Bitcoin$81,689+0.46%
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Friday, October 23 · Lead SoFi begins rolling out tokenized deposit paying interest convertible to stablecoin SoFi on October 22 began rolling out SoFi Earn (SOFIE), a tokenized deposit for consumers that pays interest and can be converted into the company's SoFiUSD stablecoin. Each SOFIE token represents $1 held on deposit at SoFi Bank and is Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)-insured up to applicable limits, the company said. It earns 4.4 percent, Decrypt reported. SoFi calls it the first and only national bank-issued tokenized deposit for consumers. The launch came a day after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's (OCC) final stablecoin rule left issuer rewards paid through third parties to case-by-case review, an opening bank groups say threatens deposits. It is offered to SoFi Crypto members. | ▸ | Outside the yield ban by definition: The OCC's final rule, published in the Federal Register on October 23, excludes deposits, including those recorded on distributed ledger technology, from the definition of payment stablecoin, so the GENIUS Act's ban on issuer-paid interest does not reach SOFIE. SoFiUSD, the coin SOFIE converts into, falls on the other side of that line. Once the Act takes effect January 18, 2027, its issuer may not pay holders interest for holding it. No issuer holds GENIUS approval yet. |
| ▸ | The fight it enters: Bank groups attacked the OCC rule on October 21 for leaving crypto platforms room to keep paying stablecoin rewards. PYMNTS read the week as setting up a contest over returns that could affect the cost and availability of bank loans. JPMorgan analysts said regulators' steps have partly offset the CLARITY Act's stall in the Senate. Political and legal risks remain, JPMorgan said. |
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Oct 23, 6:00 AM ET
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REGULATORY DEVELOPMENTS Treasury opened two rulemakings on October 22 that reach bank activity beyond deposits, and the OCC sent its stablecoin forms to the budget office. Neither Treasury proposal is final and the OCC forms await OMB approval; each has a dated next step. | ▸ | Outbound investment, banks in scope: Treasury on October 22 proposed rules under the Comprehensive Outbound Investment Security (COINS) Act, enacted in the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. U.S. persons, including their controlled foreign entities, would have to notify Treasury of certain transactions with covered foreign persons in notifiable technologies. They would also be barred from transactions in prohibited technologies. The rules cover six sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics, artificial intelligence, quantum, high-performance computing, hypersonics and biotechnology, which Treasury added in consultation with Congress. That scope brings banks and their foreign subsidiaries inside the regime. Final rules will set the effective date. |
| ▸ | Institutional home-buying ban: Treasury on October 22 proposed rules for the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act's ban on large institutional investors buying single-family homes. The prohibition takes effect January 7, 2027. It reaches entities in the business of investing in, owning, renting, managing or holding such homes with investment control over at least 350 of them. The proposal defines exceptions for build-to-rent, renovate-to-rent and homeownership programs. It also clarifies purchases made to satisfy a debt or for loss mitigation or servicing compliance. Comments are due November 23. |
INDUSTRY AND AI SIGNALS | ▸ | AI selloff, oil and Treasuries: Reuters' Morning Bid said AI stocks tumbled as investors questioned how much spending, borrowing and optimism the sector can still sustain. It said oil climbed on reports the US and Israel could be preparing new strikes on Iran. Bloomberg said the Nasdaq 100 had its worst session since June. Crude futures rose about 1.5 percent to near $101 a barrel in pre-market trading; Iran said seven tankers were damaged in the Strait of Hormuz, a claim President Trump rejected. The 10-year Treasury yield stood at 4.98 percent this morning, up about 3 basis points. The 2-year was 4.67 percent. |
| ▸ | Unvetted agents inside accounts: Major US banks are detecting and deleting unauthorized third-party AI agents that take actions inside customer accounts, Axios reported. Some of the agents appeared to attempt actions their users had not requested. Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said on October 22 that national banks have been preparing for rogue agents for months and are well guarded against cyberattacks. He did not say who bears liability when a breach occurs. The chief executives of RBC and BMO have warned customers against linking accounts to agents. The detections follow blocks by JPMorgan, Citi and Schwab. |
| ▸ | OpenAI's round, Anthropic's filing: OpenAI is closing in on a round of up to $30 billion at a $1.25 trillion pre-money valuation, CNBC reported, citing people familiar with the deal. Investors from the United Arab Emirates are leading it alongside Coatue. OpenAI told investors it aims to secure signatures by the end of next week, and it is negotiating a commercial deal for more UAE computing capacity. The company has told investors it targets roughly $600 billion in total compute spend by 2030. Anthropic could make its IPO paperwork public as soon as October 23. |
| ▸ | Visa and Fireblocks: Visa is in talks to buy Fireblocks for about $2.5 billion, Axios reported. Fireblocks responded that the reports were news to it and not true at present; Visa has not commented. Fireblocks provides custody, stablecoin settlement and tokenization infrastructure to banks and payment firms. It was valued at $8 billion in a January 2022 round. No deal has been announced. |
| ▸ | Sezzle seeks a bank: Sezzle has applied for a national bank charter, with filings to both the OCC and the FDIC. |
ALSO NOTED | ▸ | ICBA and OpenAI announced a strategic alliance to bring frontier AI cybersecurity capabilities to community banks, ICBA said. | | ▸ | BitGo and Kalshi Prime launched HODL Margining, which lets customers fund fiat margin with crypto; OCC-regulated BitGo Bank & Trust is the first custodian, Finextra said. | | ▸ | Credit card delinquencies at seven major issuers crept up to 2.6 percent in September while net charge-offs declined, PYMNTS said on October 22, citing Seeking Alpha's Credit Pulse. | | ▸ | The ICBA-backed Romance Scam Prevention Act is now law, requiring dating apps to send fraud-ban notices most already send, American Banker said. | | ▸ | The OCC published its enforcement actions for October, the agency said on X. |
WHAT IT MEANS | ▸ | SoFi's tokenized deposit gives banks an answer to stablecoin rewards that needs no GENIUS approval. The OCC's rule keeps deposits outside the payment-stablecoin definition, so a bank can pay interest on a token and keep FDIC insurance. Rewards on stablecoins, by contrast, now turn on the OCC's case-by-case review. Banks have been logging coins by issuer status; a tokenized deposit needs no such entry. The SOFIE-to-SoFiUSD conversion is the point where a customer's dollars leave an insured, interest-bearing deposit. A bank building a similar product has to decide whether to offer that exit into an affiliate's coin. |
Dates That Matter OCT 26
3d | Watch: Colorado AG rulemaking hearing; comment period closes [Watch] | NOV 2
10d | Comments close: Exemption of Debt Obligations Issued by the European Union [SEC] | NOV 2
10d | Effective: Enhanced Transparency and Public Accountability of the Supervisory Stress Test Models [FRB] · Unsafe or Unsound Practices, Matters Requiring Attention [OCC] | NOV 3
11d | Comments close: Transfer Agent Rules [SEC] | NOV 4
12d | Comments close: Proposal of Special Measure Prohibiting the Transmittal of Funds Regarding Transactions [FinCEN] · Extensions of Credit to Insiders [FDIC] · Loans to Executive Officers, Directors, and Principal Shareholders of Member Banks [FRB] |
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EARNINGS WATCH
| EPS | $2.25 GAAP vs $2.18 est | | Revenue | $239M vs $209M est |
NIM 3.19% | NCO 0.28% | CET1 12.6% | ROTCE 14.3%* |
Updated full-year 2026 guidance: loans 12%+, deposits 9%+, net interest income $805 million - $810 million, non-interest expense $460 million - $465 million. | EPS | $0.38 adj. (GAAP $0.33) vs $0.38 est | | Revenue | $2.8B vs $2.9B est |
NIM 3.25% | NCO 0.31% | CET1 10.1% | ROTCE 14.6% |
Recorded $117 million pretax acquisition-related expenses; nonperforming assets rose $110 million to $1.7 billion on commercial and industrial, commercial real estate and residential mortgage NALs. * derived from reported components, not stated in the release. adj. = adjusted (non-GAAP), the basis of the consensus estimates.
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30-Day Document Volume
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Today's inputs
| 61 docs | 20 high priority | 29 social | 413 news |
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Monitoring 99+ sources across federal agencies, state regulators, expert newsletters, social media, and news wires · Methodology |
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LexRegPulse Analyst
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