Ebrima Santos Sanneh

A proposal from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. would require the agency to notify Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network 30 days prior to major anti-money laundering actions against stablecoin issuers. The rule would also allow issuers to directly share normally confidential information with Fincen during the enforcement process.

Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould reiterated his pro-preemption stance Wednesday in response to a question on whether he would move to preempt other state laws — like one passed by the state legislature earlier this month in Colorado — if they come to fruition.

The White House issued an executive order Tuesday directing the Treasury department, bank regulators and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to advise banks on "red flags" of informal work arrangements. How agencies implement the order will determine how onerous compliance will ultimately be for banks.

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council — whose members include federal bank regulators — issued a proposal Tuesday to overhaul the bank supervisory ratings process, the first such revision in 30 years. The proposal would reduce the weight management grades have on supervisory ratings and would require rating downgrades to be tied to explicit financial risks.

The Treasury Department's General Counsel Brian Morrissey resigned his post as controversy grew over a Department of Justice settlement creating a fund to compensate for alleged victims of prosecution by the Biden administration.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a final rule saying that federal law trumps state mandates on interest in escrow accounts for national banks, wading into an ongoing court battle. 

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. waived through the Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler manufacturer's application to conduct banking activities. While banks have opposed ILCs in the past, other charters pose more pressing competitive threats at the moment.

A report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. found that business clients with large volumes of uninsured deposits fled Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic at unprecedented speed, contributing to those banks' collapses.

The trio of community bank regulatory relief bills passed by the House of Representatives on Tuesday night would ease exam intensity and frequency for smaller firms; it would also expand Treasury mentorships between community banks and larger lenders.

The Consumer Price Index for April showed consumer prices rising across all categories, including food and shelter costs, and up 3.8% year-over-year. Grocery prices rose 0.7% from the month prior.

Banking groups that sued the state of Illinois over its law barring banks from charging interchange fees on taxes and tips cheered an appeals court ruling remanding the law to a lower court and vowed to keep the law going into effect, which is slated for July 1.

Employers hired an additional 115,000 workers in April, while unemployment remained unchanged at 4.3%. Despite the positive headline figure, a spike in newly unemployed workers and a rising number of underemployed workers suggests instability under the surface.

The measure, sent Thursday to the governor's desk, would mark the second state ban on interchange fees and could inform an ongoing bank-led legal challenge to a similar Illinois law.

Public comments on the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's GENIUS Act implementing regulations highlighted the rift between banks and crypto firms over the permissibility of yield on stablecoin holdings, an issue that has stalled crypto market structure legislation for months.

Two U.S. banks have failed so far in 2026, continuing the recent pattern of smaller lenders collapsing abruptly due to firm-specific issues. January's failure of Metropolitan Capital Bank & Trust and the early May failure of Community Bank & Trust – West Georgia both fit that mold.

The FDIC moved quickly on Friday to sell $288 million in assets Community Bank and Trust – West Georgia to Anchor Bank, but the sale announcement leaves the fate of $27 million in uninsured deposits to be determined. 

Even as they continue to press for additional changes, banks get some wins from the revised Basel capital framework and a ballpark estimate of their capital outlook for the next few years.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued an interim final rule Friday to clarify banks' leeway to charge interchange fees, explicitly blocking the applicability of a law passed in Illinois that would ban charging interchange fees on taxes and tips that goes into effect in July.

Fintech firm IntraFi's most recent quarterly survey of bank executives showed rising pessimism among bankers related to "instability in Washington," as well as growing concerns about technology-enabled fraud.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Thursday finalized a rule lowering the community bank leverage ratio from 9% to 8% as well as extending compliance deadlines.