Daily Brief · June 24, 2026
Bank acquisitions, housing relief and fee pressure
Community bank deals advanced as housing legislation neared signature and consumer-fee and charter scrutiny intensified.
Bank consolidation and technology M&A
MidFirst agreed to buy Dallas Capital Bank, and North Shore agreed to buy 1895 Bancorp of Wisconsin and PyraMax Bank. MidFirst Bank agreed to buy $1.2 billion-asset Dallas Capital Bank for an undisclosed price, with closing expected in the second half of 2026. North Shore Bank agreed to buy 1895 Bancorp of Wisconsin, parent of $598 million-asset PyraMax Bank, for $18.40 to $18.66 a share in cash; American Banker valued the deal at $102.5 million to $103.8 million and said it deepens North Shore's Wisconsin footprint.
Backbase acquired Kasisto for bank chatbot capabilities. Kasisto announced Tuesday that Backbase bought it for an undisclosed amount. Kasisto's agentic platform and New York-based team are now part of Backbase, and the combined offering is available to Backbase Banking OS clients.
Policy, fee and charter channels
House sent housing bill with brokered-deposit and exam-cycle changes to Trump. The House passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act 358-32, and President Trump is expected to sign it as early as this week. The bill includes provisions on brokered deposits, bank examinations, de novo bank formation and small-dollar mortgage lending; it would also raise the 18-month exam-cycle threshold from $3 billion to $6 billion, and American Banker reported a custodial-deposit exemption for banks under $10 billion subject to a 20% liabilities cap.
Senate hearing put bipartisan pressure on overdraft fees. Lawmakers from both parties criticized banks' reliance on overdraft fees at a Senate Banking Committee affordability hearing. Sen. Bernie Moreno accused banks of sequencing transactions to maximize overdraft fees and warned that Congress could force changes if practices continue, while Democrats argued overdraft has become a major profit center.
OCC fintech charter pipeline is accelerating. American Banker reported that 2025 OCC bank charter applications equaled the previous four years combined, and less than halfway through 2026 had almost surpassed 2025's figure. Fintech applicants moving into bank charters face bank-level capital, liquidity, earnings and supervisory scrutiny.