Receiving Wide Coverage ... Beats me: Equifax’s interim CEO, Paulino do Rego Barros Jr., told the Senate Commerce Committee he doesn’t know if the company is encrypting consumer data two months after one of the worst data breaches in history. “I don’t know at this stage,” Barros said in a reply to a question from Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colorado. Members of the committee “pushed back against fundamental aspects of Equifax's business, which have faced widespread scrutiny after the data breach came to light,” the Washington Post reported. Wall Street Journal, Washington Post
Paulino do Rego Barros, testifies during a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017. Former Yahoo! Inc. Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer warned hackers are becoming more potent as she joined Equifax Inc.'s interim CEO in trying to reassure a Senate panel the companies are bolstering their defenses. Photographer: Olivier Douliery/Bloomberg
Olivier Douliery/Bloomberg
Surrender: A group that was proposing to launch a new version of bitcoin’s software to allow faster transactions, have backed off plans to release it, averting a “civil war” in the cybercurrency market. The New York Times says, the move “would have created a split in the network and most likely wreaked havoc on the virtual currency.” The decision against expansion pushed bitcoin prices to a record $7,879 during the day, raising its year-to-date gain to 656%. Wall Street Journal, New York Times
Wall Street Journal Nonbinding: Acting Comptroller of the Currency Keith Noreika said regulatory standards on leveraged lending by banks “shouldn’t be binding on anyone,” a departure from his predecessor Thomas Curry. The standards weren’t technically binding on banks, but previous regulators enforced them strictly. Banks have been hoping for a change under President Trump.
“I think leveraged lending goes to the heart of safety and soundness and will always be something that examiners are interested in,” Noreika said. “The criticism which is valid is whether a bank should be cited in [a matter requiring attention] or enforcement action because they haven’t complied with the guidance.”
New CFO: Muneera Carr, an executive vice president and Comerica's chief accounting officer, will take over as CFO early next year, replacing David Duprey, who is retiring.
Bigger is better: Square said its third-quarter payment volume jumped by nearly a third to $17.4 billion as the company expanded into larger businesses beyond its core mom-and-pop stores. Bigger merchants were responsible for almost half of that volume. Still, the company lost $16.1 million, although that was half the loss it incurred in the same period last year.
Noncommittal: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen hasn’t decided whether she will stay on the Fed’s board of governors after her term as Fed chief ends in February. Although President Trump has nominated Fed Governor Jerome Powell to succeed Yellen, her 14-year term as a Fed governor doesn’t expire until January 2024. Mnuchin also said the White House is moving forward to fill several other vacancies, including vice chair.
Elsewhere Closing down: Capital One said it is planning to exit the mortgage and home equity loan business, resulting in the layoff of about 750 people in Plano, Texas, and another 155 in St. Cloud, Minn., and Melville, N.Y.
Quotable “The consumer doesn't have a choice, sir. The consumer does not have a choice on the data that you’re collecting.” — Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., responding to Equifax’s interim CEO Paulino do Rego Barros on why consumers can’t opt out of the company's data collection.
Large banks seem comfortable paring back their capital positions while they await an updated proposal on the so-called Basel III endgame. The rules are widely expected to be more lax than what was proposed during the Biden administration.
The ICBA opposed Coinbase's filing for a trust charter in a public letter as Comptroller Jonathan Gould defended the fintech charter process on Tuesday.
After more than a quarter-century as a regulator, Jason Sisack had planned to enjoy some time off before taking a new job. He reversed course once Carver, which is operating under an enforcement action, approached him.
Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said Tuesday that chartering compliant fintechs is "the only way" to level the playing field between banks and nonbanks. His comments come as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency weighs new trust charters and stablecoin rules.
With the U.K. and U.S. giving a green light to the company's $22.7 billion scale-building deal to buy Worldpay, Global Payments has begun its integration strategy.
Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman said she wants banks to be competitive in the digital assets space, provided those operations are siloed from the traditional finance side of the business.
