Receiving Wide Coverage ... Rethinking Volcker: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is starting the process to revamp the Volcker rule on proprietary trading by banks. The OCC is expected to ask for public feedback as early as Wednesday on potential changes to the rule. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times
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The move by the OCC "raised investors' hopes that the process of loosening rules on Wall Street will succeed even though other areas of the Trump administration agenda, such as tax reform, are awaiting Congressional action — for which expectations have dimmed," the Financial Times said. Bank stocks rallied, with the S&P 500 financial index rising to 419.54, its highest level since late 2007, and shares of some individual big banks climbing over 1%.
Paul Volcker, Chair of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, takes part in a seminar titled "Financial Stability Framework and the Role of Central Banks" in Washington, D.C., U.S., Friday, April 25, 2009. Photographer: Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg News
JOSHUA ROBERTS/BLOOMBERG NEWS
Splitsville: Bitcoin Cash, the bitcoin offshoot, got off to an inauspicious start on its first day of trading on Tuesday. The digital currency traded around $270, about a tenth of the value of original bitcoin, which was worth about $2,750.
"It is unclear how successful the new cryptocurrency will be, or how much activity it will generate," the Wall Street Journal reported. Most digital currency exchanges so far aren't supporting Bitcoin Cash, it said.
Financial Times columnist Izabella Kaminska writes that the split between alternate versions of bitcoin is "a judgment of Solomon moment. Only a decisive win by either side will prevent bitcoin from splitting itself apart."
Financial Times They're b-a-a-ck: Collateralized loan obligations, which have been blamed for causing much of the damage during the financial crisis, are starting to make a comeback, and Frank Partnoy, a professor at the University of San Diego, is concerned that the financial markets are ignoring their potential harm.
"Like its earlier esoteric cousins, a CLO bundles risky low-grade loans into attractive packages and high credit ratings," he writes in an op-ed piece. "Although most of the loans underlying these deals are of 'junk' status, more than half the new debt is rated triple A. Sound familiar?"
Sticking with London: Deutsche Bank signed a lease for a new headquarters in London, "confirming its commitment to the capital despite plans to move some staff to Frankfurt following the U.K.'s vote to leave" the European Union, the FT reports. "The commitment comes despite a warning in April that thousands of Deutsche Bank's U.K. staff may be forced to relocate after Brexit, since the U.K.'s departure from the EU is likely to limit banks' ability to serve European clients from London."
Hangin' with Mr. Cooper: The FT has a profile of Simon Cooper, the man charged with reviving Standard Chartered.
New York Times "Carl E. Reichardt, who as chairman and chief executive of Wells Fargo during the 1980s and ′90s introduced a leaner approach to commercial banking that served as a model for the industry, died on July 13 at his home in Belvedere, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was 86."
Quotable "The path is a little clearer for some regulatory relief." — Brant Houston, managing director at CIBC Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management, about the possibility of revamping the Volcker rule.
A housing bill that already passed the Senate cleared the House Monday evening, but included bipartisan community banking provisions that have already raised objections in the upper chamber.
The Government Accountability Office was tasked with investigating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's stop-work order, but CFPB officials refused to meet with or provide information to Congress' investigative arm.
Federal Reserve Gov. Christopher Waller said comments from banks and fintech firms reveal sharply different priorities in the creation of the central bank's proposed "skinny" master accounts.
The activist investor HoldCo Asset Management said Monday that it doesn't plan to pursue proxy battles this spring at either Key or Eastern. It had been agitating publicly over the banks' M&A strategies.
