Claire Williams

The case over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's $8 late fee rule has emerged as a flashpoint in a larger debate over "judge shopping," whereby plaintiffs seek venues with judges sympathetic to their complaints.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., tapped executive compensation and cannabis banking bills as bipartisan priorities that could see movement in the Senate in the "weeks and months ahead."

A federal judge in Texas sided with bank trade groups, agreeing that bank regulators might have overstepped their authority in reforming parts of the Community Reinvestment Act.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown faces a tough 2024 campaign to recapture his Ohio senate seat in a state that's increasingly Red. Can the same state that elected conservative populist firebrand J.D. Vance also re-elect Sherrod Brown? And what do the political undercurrents apparent in Ohio mean for banks?

The bipartisan funding bill cuts financial services funding, but includes boons for the Small Business Administration and omits controversial legislation like Durbin 2.0.

At an American Bankers Association event, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who's up for reelection this year, said that he hopes the Durbin-Marshall credit card bill won't go anywhere and criticized the Federal Reserve's debit interchange proposal.

Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., majority whip of the U.S. House, says Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry's digital market structure bill could be ready for a vote in the full chamber.

Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., sent separate letters to banking regulators on the anniversary of the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, with Hagerty questioning the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s sale of Signature Bank's assets and Warren urging the regulators to tighten capital and liquidity requirements.

In his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden touted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's credit card late fee rule, which has sparked litigation from banking groups, and a raft of housing policy initiatives.

President Joe Biden is expected to lean in on banking issues such as credit card late fees and overdraft fees Thursday evening in his annual address to Congress. However, he likely will avoid the topic of financial-sector stability, even amid a private-sector rescue of New York Community Bancorp.

The letter, which was sent to bank regulators, represents a further escalation of lawmaker criticism of the Basel III endgame proposal, and comes just as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is set to testify in the House Financial Services Committee.

In a 31 to 20 vote, the House Financial Services Committee voted to advance a resolution disapproving of a Securities and Exchange Commission accounting bulletin that banks say would undercut their ability to custody crypto.

Rep. Maxine Waters, ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, led the letter, spurred by the recent merger announcement between Capital One and Discover, which the letter said would enable the merged company "to influence multiple points of the marketplace."

Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr said in a speech Tuesday that banks might need to establish margin to counteract counterparty risks presented by private funds.

The lawmakers, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said the deal would further anti-consumer bank consolidation, but also criticized the OCC's proposed changes to the merger process, asking that they be strengthened.

Some analysts said that the Capital One-Discover deal would undercut the reasoning behind the Credit Card Competition Act — authored by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. — which aims to spur competition for Visa and Mastercard.

The blockbuster merger proposal will be reviewed at a time when the Biden administration is expressing skepticism about consolidation. Its analysis will have to account for markets dominated by both big banks and the likes of Visa and Mastercard.

Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts asked Early Warning Services, which operates the payment platform Zelle, to clarify its reimbursement policy around impostor scams.

Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., will propose legislation on Friday that would curtail the Federal Reserve's ability to slow down the bank merger process by mandating that the central bank must approve or deny applications within 90 days of receiving them.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle pulled back from criticizing the Federal Home Loan banks, seemingly taking off the table the idea of changing the system's role as a lender to troubled banks.