Finance

Taavet Hinrikus turned his startup into the one of the world’s biggest digital-payment firms, giving returns of about 35,000% to early investors including Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston announced that Susan Collins, an economist currently at the University of Michigan, will be its new president, marking the first time a Black woman will lead one of the U.S. central bank’s 12 districts.

The company has agreed to pay at least $3.75 million to resolve allegations that it violated the District of Columbia’s 24% interest rate cap.

The U.S. Treasury Department defeated a blue-state challenge to a rule that exempts buyers of high-interest loans from state interest rate caps.

The U.K. financial technology startup GoCardless raised $312 million in new funding to speed up its expansion in open banking across products and geogrophies.

Underwriting has become more lenient amid increased competition for corporate borrowers, and as Paycheck Protection Program loans are disappearing from banks' balance sheets.

Wages, marketing spending and technology investments are all on the rise. While higher interest rates should eventually help tame inflation, it's not clear how quickly banks will be able to limit their spending increases.

Executives said record-high commercial loan commitments in the fourth quarter validate the San Antonio bank’s decision to open more than two dozen branches in Houston and pursue a similar path in Dallas.

The credit card issuer fielded questions about its fees two days after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a wide-ranging review of consumer charges. Executives said they would not take a big revenue hit even in the face of new limits.

Blazing demand for leveraged loans is allowing companies to reduce borrowing costs by tinkering with a provision many viewed as key to weaning the industry off the London interbank offered rate.

Esusu, a financial technology company that aims to help bridge the racial wealth gap by reporting rent payments to credit agencies, has become one of only a few Black-owned startups to reach a valuation of $1 billion after closing a Series B round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank was ready to raise interest rates in March and didn’t rule out moving at every meeting to tackle the highest inflation in a generation.

Multifamily and specialty finance loans, which were highlights during the fourth quarter, should increase further in 2022, company executives said.

The North Carolina company will also eliminate nonsufficient-funds fees as it aims to keep pace with larger rivals, including Bank of America, that have revised their overdraft policies.

The expenses jumped 33% last quarter, which was generally in line with trends elsewhere in the credit card industry. The battle for new customers is “intense,” CEO Richard Fairbank told analysts.

The French bank and New York asset management firm will buy and hold inventory to meet clients’ future needs and track materials on a new software platform.

The Florida company spent nearly $7 million in the fourth quarter on the payouts, which were made in recognition of work done during the pandemic.

U.S. bank stocks are headed for their worst losing streak in a year, burning investors who bought shares on expectations that the Federal Reserve raising rates for the first time since 2018 would boost the sector.

A few months ago bankers were more hopeful than confident about an end to depressed demand for business credit. Now CEOs at Huntington, Fifth Third, Mercantile Bank and other companies are touting strong fourth-quarter loan growth, burgeoning pipelines and local job creation as reasons for optimism.

Loans to car sellers plummeted earlier in the pandemic due to chip shortages that hampered vehicle production. But supply improvements since last fall have fueled the start of a rebound.