Commercial lending

The Federal Reserve received a bipartisan critique Wednesday from members of a congressional oversight panel who said the central bank has been slow to launch a key emergency lending program for midsize companies.

Jennifer Roberts, the company's head of business banking, details a process to have units work one-on-one with customers to get Paycheck Protection Program funds deployed faster.

The comptroller of the currency, who is stepping down after two and a half years on the job, ruffled feathers and won some fans in pushing through CRA reform, cutting costs and trying to reshape the agency’s examiner culture.

Four federal agencies offered guidance Wednesday on how to offer products that compete against payday loans without incurring Washington's wrath. The announcement could spark the rebirth of deposit advances, which were regulated out of existence during the Obama administration.

The National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions has released the results of survey looking at how the industry has used the Paycheck Protection Program so far.

The sellers will continue to service the loans and retain the fees they receive from the Small Business Administration.

Lenders are scrambling to pause ranchers’ loan payments as meat processing plant shutdowns during the pandemic threaten $25 billion in losses for the livestock industry.

Congress should pass legislation authorizing use of nontraditional data sources to make credit more available to consumers who’ve taken a hit from the coronavirus pandemic.

Black and Latino business owners were less likely to get loans than overall borrowers, survey states; Atlanta Fed president tells lenders they won’t be second-guessed if they do right by borrowers.

With rates so low — after steep emergency Federal Reserve cuts in response to the pandemic’s fallout — banks will struggle to generate bread-and-butter interest income and asset-sensitive lenders will face substantial net interest margin contraction this year and next, analysts say.