With a powerful personal story and real-world banking experience, Jelena McWilliams is shaking up the FDIC. (ABA Banking Journal)

Since millennials first started entering the workforce, their spending habits have been blamed for killing off industries ranging from casual restaurant dining to starter houses. However, a new study by the Federal Reserve suggests it might be less about how they are spending their money and more about not having any to spend. (NPR)

ABA added 19 banks to its Nasdaq Community Bank Index (ABAQ) this week. The index now includes 334 community banks with a combined market cap of $290 billion. (ABA Banking Journal)

Fast, safe and easy money movement. That is the expectation from consumers today. Banks must protect real-time payments—but not the same way they secure ACH transfers or wires. They need to blend the basics of fighting fraud with new tactics, capabilities and processes to keep pace with digital payments. (ABA Banking Journal)

The U.S. economy added 155,000 jobs in November, below estimates and cooler than October, but the labor market continues to maintain momentum. The unemployment rate held at 3.7 percent for the third straight month, the lowest level since December 1969, according to the latest Labor Department report. (The Hill)

Over the past three decades, Laurie Stewart has shattered the industry’s glass ceiling. As president and chief executive of Seattle's Sound Community Bank and its parent company, Sound Financial, she has led the bank through its transformation from a tiny credit union to a publicly traded bank that now has $685 million in assets. (American Banker)

In a live interview on Bloomberg this week, ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols outlined three key policy priorities that ABA is looking to in 2019. (ABA Banking Journal)

This week, the Senate, in a 50 to 49 vote, confirmed Kathy Kraninger to a five-year term as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Kraninger is currently an associate director at the Office of Management and Budget. (ABA Banking Journal)

The FDIC formally launched its highly anticipated initiative to foster de novo bank formation. The FDIC is seeking feedback on how it could modify the application process for traditional community banks; whether and how it should support the evolution of emerging technologies and fintech firms as part of the application process; and any factors that discourage potential applicants. (ABA Banking Journal)

The U.S. Postal Service should not move into "postal banking" with new financial services offerings, according to a report issued today by a Treasury Department task force focused on postal reform. (ABA Banking Journal)

A recent proposal by the National Credit Union Administration to raise the threshold at which credit unions must obtain appraisals for commercial real estate transactions, from $250,000 to $1 million, would create an unlevel playing field between banks and credit unions, ABA said in a comment letter to the NCUA. (ABA Banking Journal)