Opinions

After the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency cracked down on a $2.8 billion-asset bank, industry observers expect more scrutiny of the ties between banks and financial technology startups.

Fintech and cryptocurrency firms competing with banks but subject to fewer regulations are "getting away with murder," said Eugene Ludwig, a former comptroller under the Bill Clinton administration. 

A shift is underway at the Federal Reserve in how to describe neutral — the interest rate level that neither stimulates nor restrains growth — as it debates how much higher to hike.

It remains to be seen what the capped price for Russian oil will be or whether the move will stabilize world energy prices.

The 2012 order, which came alongside fines to U.S. authorities totaling nearly $2 billion, had sullied the London-based bank's reputation. "Over the last decade HSBC's employees have worked hard to transform the bank's financial crime risk management capabilities," HSBC says.

The Federal Reserve will roll out its much-anticipated instant payments system, known as FedNow, in the middle of next year. Yet many questions remain about who it will serve, how it will work and how quickly community banks will buy in to it.

The Department of Justice's department of legal counsel said that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s board members can bring matters into consideration and vote, even without approval from the agency's chair. 

The Federal Reserve's balance-sheet unwind is set to ramp up this week, which means the central bank will finally begin unloading the Treasury bills it started amassing almost three years ago.

The bottom 50% of U.S. households, generally those with a net worth of $166,000 or less before the pandemic, are in the strongest relative financial position in a generation, according to the Realtime Inequality tracker.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech in Jackson Hole reaffirmed that the end of accommodative monetary policy is coming to an end. This is a boon to banks, but only those that have managed their balance sheets just right.