The financial news that actually matters
A coffee shop owner in Chicago loses about two cents on every dollar when a customer taps a credit card. That cut, called an interchange fee, goes to the bank that issued the card before the merchant sees a dime. Across every card terminal in the country, those small slices added up to an estimated…
A firearms dealer in the Midwest gets a letter from his bank of 12 years: his account is being closed, no specific reason given. A faith-based nonprofit in Texas discovers its payment processor has frozen donations after an internal “reputational review.” A legal cannabis company in Colorado cannot find a single national bank willing to…
When a customer taps a credit card at a coffee shop in Chicago, the shop’s owner pays a fee, usually between 1.5% and 3% of the sale, to the bank that issued the card. That interchange fee funds a mix of fraud protection, cardholder rewards programs, and the network infrastructure that keeps digital payments running….
If you run a firearms shop, a cryptocurrency exchange, or a religious nonprofit, you may already know what it feels like to open a letter from your bank informing you that your account is being closed, with no meaningful explanation attached. For years, businesses and individuals operating in legal but politically sensitive spaces have reported…
Illinois merchants were one day away from paying less every time a customer swiped a credit card. Then a federal regulator killed the discount before it started. On June 30, 2026, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency published an interim bulletin declaring that national banks and federal savings associations do not have to…
If you run a gun shop, donate to controversial political causes, or operate a legal cannabis dispensary, you may have experienced something that thousands of Americans have reported over the past decade: your bank closed your account, offered little or no explanation, and left you scrambling to find another institution willing to take your money….
On June 30, 2026, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency published two interim final actions that allow nationally chartered banks to keep charging merchants credit card processing fees on tips and sales tax, overriding an Illinois law designed to eliminate exactly those charges. The state’s ban was set to take effect the very…
In 28 days, federal bank examiners will lose one of the most controversial tools in their supervisory arsenal. Starting June 9, 2026, examiners at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will be barred from pressuring banks to close customer accounts, deny services, or sever banking relationships based…
In 2014, a licensed firearms dealer in Wisconsin discovered his bank account had been shut down. No fraud. No bounced checks. No explanation beyond a form letter. When he applied at other banks, he was turned away. Years later, internal FDIC documents revealed that federal examiners had flagged gun sellers as reputational liabilities, quietly pressuring…
Every time you tap or swipe a card at a restaurant in Illinois, the bank that issued your card collects an interchange fee, typically between 1.5% and 3.5% of the total charge depending on the card type and network. That total includes the meal, the sales tax, and the tip. Illinois passed a law, the…