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JPMorgan Chase closed out the most profitable year in U.S. banking history with its seventh consecutive quarter of record net interest income and a surprise forecast that the windfall may continue this year. 

When big banks kick off earnings season on Friday, industry observers will be paying close attention to loan growth, deposit growth, expense growth, credit quality and capital ratios. All five areas will offer clues about the industry's trajectory in 2024.

The guidance also underscores consumer rights to obtain access to their own information as well as identities of sources providing data.

The anti-money-laundering systems that are automatically kicking customers out of their accounts need to be tempered with rich customer data, human involvement and perhaps quick requests for information from customers.

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.