Top banking news this month: May 2022

May 31, 2022 3:49 PM

In this month's roundup of American Banker's favorite stories: The Credit Union Women’s Leadership Alliance is gearing up to launch its executive coaching program, Lisa D. Cook became the first Black woman to receive Senate confirmation for a seat on the Federal Reserve and more.

Click here to read last month's roundup of banking industry news.

Rohit Chopra, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Chopra's expansive vision for CFPB authority is facing industry pushback

Article by Kate Berry

A dizzying number of policy changes and enforcement actions by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in recent weeks has prompted aggressive pushback from banks and industry executives.

Efforts by CFPB Director Rohit Chopra to extract hefty fines and settlements from repeat corporate offenders and to hold individual executives personally liable for wrongdoing has sent ripples through the financial services industry. More companies are disputing the CFPB’s allegations, refusing to pay large fines or admit wrongdoing, and vowing to vigorously defend themselves in court.

Click to read the full story.

Banks, credit unions paying top dollar to hire lenders

Article by Jim Dobbs and Ken McCarthy

Amid the disruption imposed by the pandemic and an ensuing merger-and-acquisition wave, veteran lenders have a wealth of career options. Growth-hungry banks and credit unions are competing aggressively to woo such talent because borrowers tend to follow them.

The goal: Pay up now for bankers who have proved they can drive loan and revenue growth long term.

“There's always room for top revenue-generating talent,” said Old National Bancorp CEO Jim Ryan III. “We have an unending appetite for that type of talent.”

Click to read the full story.

SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman

Isabel Casillas Guzman, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg

SBA hasn’t given up on direct lending

Article by John Reosti

The Small Business Administration failed to secure an appropriation in the fiscal 2022 budget that would have empowered the agency to lend directly to small businesses. In the wake of strong opposition from banks and credit unions, it omitted funding for direct lending altogether in its fiscal 2023 spending plan.

That doesn’t mean the SBA is giving up on the idea.

Click to read the full story.

Mat Hayward - stock.adobe.com

TD Bank latest to offer embedded banking to business clients

Article by Penny Crossman

TD Bank is catching up to peers that let business clients handle banking tasks within software they already use. A fintech partner, Fispan, is building the application programming interfaces (APIs) that make this work, connecting TD’s systems with accounting software like QuickBooks or enterprise resource planning software from companies like Oracle and SAP.

With this move into embedded banking, TD Bank, the U.S. unit of Toronto-based TD Bank Group, which has about $1.4 trillion of assets, is joining the ranks of banks that have been doing this for some time, such as Wells Fargo, Silicon Valley Bank and Citi.

Click to read the full story.

5 ideas traditional banks have borrowed from challenger banks

Article by Miriam Cross

Zero overdraft fees. Early payday. Gamified savings.

These are some of the innovations of challenger banks that are gradually becoming more common at traditional financial institutions.

In some cases, such as proactive credit-building, banks are playing catch-up to challenger banks. In other cases, banks offer the more attractive product, such as higher limits on a broader variety of transaction types for customers if they overdraw, even if challenger banks pioneered the effort.

Click to read the full story.

Banks’ hidden role in the carbon footprints of large corporations

Article by Jordan Stutts

Many large U.S. corporations have made specific pledges to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions as part of the fight against climate change. For example, Microsoft has pledged to cut its emissions by more than half over the next eight years.

But a new report by sustainable finance activists argues that the emissions associated with big companies’ cash holdings — and specifically how banks invest and lend those funds — are underreported in climate-related disclosures.

Click to read the full story.

Lily Newfarmer (left) president and CEO of Tarrant County’s Credit Union, and Linda White, president and CEO of Upward Credit Union.

Women credit union CEOs debut mentorship program

Article by Frank Gargano

A credit union advocacy group formed by women leaders is launching a training program to make sure its members are able to grow their organizations and avoid the need for consolidation.

The Credit Union Women’s Leadership Alliance was created in December 2020 through the collaborative efforts of 13 female chief executives and the Madison, Wisconsin-based insurance firm CUNA Mutual Group to offer a forum for sharing best practices and policies — as well as other resources — exclusively for women CEOs who run institutions with assets of $300 million or less.

Click to read the full story.

Aleksandra Teichman, head of acquiring, business development and strategy for Cross River Bank..jpg

Rosemary Stack (left), a senior vice president at Bank of America and Kristy Carstensen, chief financial officer for payments at U.S. Bancorp.

Keith Pitts

Inside the ‘consumerization of payments’

Article by John Adams

Payments technology has advanced rapidly in the past two years, driven largely by a dramatic shift in how consumers interact with technology. And consumers will continue to drive innovation, even in other areas of the payments system, experts said at American Banker's Payments Forum in Phoenix.

One of the most important roles for future payment tools is their ability to act like a connective tissue, ensuring reliability and the availability of money movement, according to Aleksandra Teichman, head of acquiring, business development and strategy for Cross River Bank.

Click to read the full story.

David Odisho/Bloomberg

Cannabis banking bill gets bipartisan Senate push

Article by Brendan Pedersen

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of U.S. senators threw its weight behind a key cannabis banking reform bill, urging House and Senate leadership to include it in a wider legislative package under negotiation to boost America’s economic competitiveness with China.

The letter, signed by nearly two dozen Republican and Democratic senators and dated May 12, urged the senior congressional leadership to include the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act in the Chinese competition package. First introduced by Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., in 2013, the bill would give banks regulatory cover to provide financial services to cannabis firms.

Click to read the full story.

Cook confirmed as first Black woman to serve on Fed board (Image)

Lisa D. Cook was confirmed by the Senate to serve as a member of the Federal Reserve board on May 10. Her nomination was confirmed on a party-line 51-50 vote, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tiebreaking vote.

Ken Cedeno/Bloomberg

Cook confirmed as first Black woman to serve on Fed board

Article by Brendan Pedersen

WASHINGTON — Lisa D. Cook became the first Black woman to receive Senate confirmation for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board on May 10, capping an arduous nomination process beset by Republican accusations that she was not qualified to serve.

Cook, who taught economics at Michigan State University before being tapped by the Biden administration for the Federal Reserve, secured confirmation despite uniform opposition from Senate Republicans. A tiebreaking vote was cast by Vice President Kamala Harris, making the vote 51-50 in favor of her candidacy.

Click to read the full story.