Brendan Pedersen

The agencies said banks could receive Community Reinvestment Act credit for activities addressing the virus fallout, and clarified earlier guidance encouraging banks to dip into their capital buffers.

The voluntary agreements were meant to help the FDIC make staffing changes ahead of a wave of retirements. But concerns about the coronavirus means those plans will be put on hold.

Groups often will oppose mergers on Community Reinvestment Act grounds. But the proposal would tighten standards for when the agency includes “adverse comments” in the process.

In signing off on deposit insurance for the payments giant and student loan servicer, the FDIC sanctioned the first new industrial loan companies in over a decade.

On the same day the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said it will soon rule on two applications, the agency also proposed benchmarks for all firms that want to own industrial loan companies.

The agencies were up and running Monday but have taken steps to allow employees to work from home.

The OCC and FDIC said banks should consider waiving fees, be flexible with loan repayments and that they would not be penalized if they close branches for precautionary reasons.

The OCC and FDIC’s proposal for modernizing the community reinvestment law would give banks below $500 million of assets the option to keep the current regime. But bankers and industry representatives say that threshold should be higher.

A decision by regulators on how to move forward with the controversial charter could have broad implications for fintech firms that want to enter the banking system.

As part of a review, the agency said it had identified requirements dealing with operating subsidiaries, noncontrolling investments by banks and other corporate activities that were no longer necessary.

The agency says it is not cutting its workforce but that the new strategy is necessary because it has an unusually high number of workers near retirement age.

Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting suggested the central bank was adopting a “partisan” stance against his plan to overhaul the Community Reinvestment Act.

The FDIC’s Quarterly Banking Profile said lackluster net interest income, likely resulting from lower short-term interest rates, drove a decline in fourth-quarter and full-year earnings.

Recent proposals considered or passed by legislatures around the country grant banks certain exemptions, but they differ from state to state and may pose new compliance headaches.

The hearing will be one of three held by the House Financial Services Committee to scrutinize the bank next month.

The agency said it wants feedback on changing its ubiquitous logo greeting customers at branches and ATMs to address technological changes, shifting consumer behaviors and bank-nonbank partnerships.

In a sudden reversal, the OCC and FDIC said they would push back the deadline to April for groups to weigh in on the proposal to modernize the Community Reinvestment Act.

Compared with incendiary fights elsewhere in the capital, deliberations among the banking agencies tend to be more banal. But on issues from the Volcker Rule to CRA reform, disagreements lately between officials have grown sharper.

Ericson State Bank, which had been in regulators’ sights for a decade, was closed by state and federal authorities Friday. Another bank acquired all of its deposits and a fraction of its assets.

The inspector general also said high turnover at the chief information officer position has limited the agency's ability to modernize its technology.