Claire Williams

House Republicans' accusation that government agencies are being weaponized against political conservatives underlines a longstanding challenge for banks: Balancing customers' data privacy and stopping financial crime.

The subpoena is part of a growing Republican narrative that Democrats have weaponized the Federal Bureau of Investigation against conservatives.

The Truist Leadership Institute is part of a growing corporate leadership-training industry that says it's focused on creating more empathetic leaders. But critics decry the institute's blurring of personal and professional boundaries, and question its scientific backing.

The special assessment to refill the Deposit Insurance Fund should be based on uninsured deposits after the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank, House Republicans said.

Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and other committee Democrats told the Federal Reserve that the agency isn't considering financial stability enough in its review of bank merger applications.

Goldman Sachs told Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., that it made $60 million on the purchase and sale of part of Silicon Valley Bank's loan portfolio.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., said that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. could do more to penalize banks that have downwardly revised their uninsured deposits as the agency looks to collect its special assessment.

A group of House Republicans led by Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., said that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau doesn't have the authority to hold information discussions with the bureau's European Union counterparts.

Despite big talk months ago, experts don't see a lot of political appetite to change bank oversight rules — or the deposit insurance system — in the wake of three large regional bank failures that happened earlier this year.

While talks between House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., and ranking member Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., fell apart on stablecoin legislation, crypto anti-money-laundering bills quietly moved forward in the Senate.

The credit card swipe fee bill won't be in the defense spending package now, but the bill's Republican co-sponsor believes that it will receive a vote soon.

Treasury Department Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions Graham Steele also spoke favorably of capital changes set to be proposed by banking agencies on Thursday.

Banks may be trying to pay less of a special assessment to recoup the losses to the deposit insurance fund after the regional bank crisis this spring.

Both Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and ranking member Tim Scott, R-S.C., said they would consider what reforms "if any" are necessary post Silicon Valley Bank failure.

The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee voted nearly unanimously to advance a bill that would halt a plan by the Small Business Administration to open up some of its loan programs to fintech companies.

As the Senate debates this year's defense spending package, analysts say the highly partisan politics of this Congress, as well as the banking industry's lobbying, make it difficult for Sen. Dick Durbin's, D-Ill., credit card legislation to slip through this round.

The House Financial Services Committee held a subcommittee hearing with senior staff from banking agencies, while the oversight branch of the panel questioned some large banks on their ESG efforts in asset management units.

Next week, the House Financial Services Committee will discuss bank regulator oversight bills, including one that would remove the Federal Reserve's Vice Chairman for Supervision position.

A draft piece of legislation would strike the section of Dodd-Frank that sets up the Federal Reserve's top banking cop.

Before a hearing in which Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said she would reintroduce legislation making it harder for large banks to merge, the Senate Banking Committee sent three Federal Reserve nominees to the full Senate.