Receiving Wide Coverage ... A pragmatic approach: Randal Quarles, President Trump’s nominee for Federal Reserve vice chair for financial supervision, has been described “as a pragmatist rather than an ideological crusader for deregulation,” the Financial Times says. That approach may prove more effective in getting changes through Congress, “which remains locked in a legislative logjam.”
While Quarles’ past statements “suggest he will be scouring the rule book for ways of easing burdens that he suspects of constricting growth, radical change is far more difficult to achieve within America’s complex regulatory thicket than might be apparent,” the paper says.
One of Quarles’ first orders of business may be in revising the Volcker rule, an effort in which he will play a leading role, the New York Times says.
Wall Street Journal Bailed out: Rising home prices have eased banks' worries that home equity line of credit customers might not be able to afford higher payments when the lines start to reset to include principal as well as interest. “Banks are more optimistic. The economy and jobs picture have improved and the housing market has recovered enough in recent years to give borrowers more flexibility," the paper says. "Specifically, it has become less common for mortgage borrowers to owe more than their house is worth, a condition known as being 'underwater' that makes it harder for Heloc borrowers to handle a reset.”
PayPay names lending chief: PayPal said it has hired Mark Britto, a former Amazon executive, to head its lending business, replacing Steve Allocca, who left in May to become the president of Lending Club. Britto founded Boku Inc., which lets consumers pay for purchases on their cell phone bills. The hiring indicates PayPal intends to hang onto the profitable unit, which the paper says the company “has been considering options for” the past few months.
Cooperation is key: Just as the internet “brought a badly needed culture of collaboration and standards to the IT industry,” so blockchain “will similarly require the stewardship of international organizations to oversee its evolution” and ensure its success. So says Irving Wladawsky-Berger, a former IBM executive and strategic adviser to Citigroup.
Financial Times Counterattack: Senior Congressional Republicans have already begun to try to kill the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new rule, announced Monday, that would prohibit banks from forcing their customers to submit to arbitration to resolve disputes, making it easier to bring class-action suits.
Move, or else: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said bankers will have no choice but to move their staffs out of London if the EU "orders" them to after Brexit. “If the EU determines over time that they want to move a lot more jobs out of London into the EU, they can simply dictate that,” he told a group of European finance executives and politicians in Paris. “If regulators say one day we’re not comfortable with your risk people, your lawyers, your compliance being in the UK, they can make us move it.”
No foul: Lloyds Banking said it will stop charging overdraft fees to retail customers starting in November, the first major British bank to change its policies following a recent ruling by the country’s Competition and Markets Authority.
Quotable “The bureau’s new rule on arbitration clauses ignores the consumer benefits of arbitration and treats Arkansans like helpless children, incapable of making business decisions in their own best interests.” — Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas.
Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, introduces Representative Mick Mulvaney, a Republican from South Carolina and Office of Management and Budget director nominee for U.S. President Donald Trump, not pictured, during a Senate Governmental Affairs Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017. Mulvaney said Tuesday the nearly $20 trillion national debt needs to be "addressed sooner rather than later" and that he would push Trump to break his campaign promises and cut Social Security and Medicare. Photographer: Aaron P. Bernstein/Bloomberg
The ABA is testing an information-exchange network to allow banks to share their fraud data with each other. Companies including Baselayer are also building solutions.
Republicans on the House and Senate Small Business committees are accusing the SBA of being irresponsible in granting Funding Circle permission to participate in its flagship loan-guarantee program.
Strong consumer spending and cross-border activity drove an 8% increase in Visa's total payments volume during the first quarter of the year, although Asia's economic recovery is taking longer than expected.
The JPMorgan Chase CEO took aim Tuesday at the proposed Basel III endgame rules, hindrances to mergers and bureaucratic burdens. "I would love to have a more productive relationship with regulators, but I think it takes conversation," Dimon said.
