Opinions

By purchasing additional assets and securities, the Federal Reserve provided the financial markets with enough liquidity to weather the pandemic recession. But with the economy starting to recover, it needs to reduce such funding before it creates dangerous bubbles over the long term, say two former bankers.

Democrats have proposed a Congressional Review Act resolution to strike down the OCC rule, arguing it enables "rent-a-bank" schemes.

For banks that pass this year’s stress tests, the Federal Reserve said it will eliminate the restrictions on dividends and share buybacks while subjecting those institutions instead to the stress capital buffer.

Former Obama-era regulators Kara Stein and Sarah Bloom Raskin, as well as Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic, have joined the field of potential nominees to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, according to sources familiar with the process.

Complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau jumped 54% to 542,300 in 2020. Concerns about credit reports have long outnumbered those in other categories and jumped significantly as a share of the total from 2019.

Free investment education and testing for risk tolerance are among the ways financial firms can better reach underserved consumers, former SEC chief Jay Clayton and Operation HOPE’s John Hope Bryant say.

Two banking bills signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker carry implications for payday lenders, auto title lenders, credit unions and nonbank mortgage lenders. Pritzker, a Democrat, said the bills will address racial-equity gaps in the state.

Top officials at the U.S. central bank and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reaffirmed their commitment to understand how extreme weather events affect financial institutions and the economy as a whole. Many Republicans, however, worry the Federal Reserve’s new climate focus strays too far from its traditional function.

The agency's plan would strengthen requirements that banks use a minimum amount of their real estate for the business of banking, but three grade groups say banks need flexibility in the pandemic to manage occupancy.

Almost $2 trillion of debt pegged to dollar Libor, much of which can’t easily be shifted to an alternative benchmark, won’t mature until after the discredited rate expires in mid-2023, according to the Federal Reserve-backed group guiding the transition.