Financial regulations

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's inquiry into buy into the installment products should make sure fintechs abide by the same underwriting requirements as banks in this growing market.

Consumers and their credit scores could be put at considerable risk unless regulators establish meaningful safeguards.

The bureau said two rules related to communications with debtors will go into effect as originally planned on Nov. 30. The agency had previously proposed an extension to consider consumer advocates' concerns about the regulations.

A Senate hearing highlighted the two parties' starkly different views of digital assets, with Democrats warning of price manipulation and Republicans saying the government should just get out of the way.

Graham Steele, a former Senate Banking Committee staffer who has supported strong regulation, was named as the administration's choice for assistant secretary of financial institutions.

The central bank said the proposed measure governing transactions on FedNow — a real-time service expected to be available in 2023 — would be similar to the framework for the current Fedwire Funds Service.

Some bank regulators are allowing companies that offer digital currencies to apply for a charter, potentially giving them a path to the Federal Reserve system without proper oversight.

Some bank regulators are allowing companies that offer digital currencies to apply for a charter, potentially giving them a path to the Federal Reserve system without proper oversight.

Detecting business dealings with banned parties means screening a maze of transactions, and Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control supports calls for the industry to take a risk-based approach. But regulators effectively require banks to track everything, which is unproductive.

The jockeying over who President Biden should appoint to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has focused attention on how to regulate the fintech sector, but the discussion has glossed over flaws in the agency's funding structure that have persisted across administrations.