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The internal watchdog called for new standards for staff handling of controlled unclassified information.

The investigation into highly sensitive block trades — in which banks typically help clients buy or sell chunks of stock large enough to move prices — has focused in part on whether employees shared or misused information about impending transactions in ways that broke securities laws.

The decision could make bitcoin a major part of more investing portfolios. But after bitcoin, the SEC is likely to move slowly on approving other crypto-tied ETFs.

In a string of enforcement actions issued Thursday, the Federal Reserve barred one former banker from the industry for misappropriating confidential supervisory information and fined three others for misappropriating internal bank records.

Surging interest rates, recession threats and weaker stock valuations bogged down merger-and-acquisition activity last year. The 98 announced deals fell short of even 2020, when the pandemic briefly brought the economy to a standstill.

The Senate on Wednesday fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to override President Biden's veto in December of a Republican-led resolution to gut the small-business data collection rule using the Congressional Review Act.

For the past week, the benchmark 10-year Treasury closed above 4%, as the markets priced in an increase in the consumer price index.

John Williams, who also serves as vice chair of the Federal Open Market Committee, does not expect the Federal Reserve to slow its balance sheet runoff anytime soon.

The deal by the $11.8 billion-asset Global (formerly AlaskaUSA) to acquire First Financial Northwest Bank is one of the largest bank deals ever struck by a credit union.

The software company's latest product, a private debt marketplace, is designed to connect startups with trusted, pre-vetted lenders.