Policy & Regulation

The stock market has reached record highs despite rampant unemployment, recession and a global pandemic. What gives?

Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks and Department of Financial Services Superintendent Linda Lacewell stuck to opposing scripts on whether federal or state regulators are best equipped to protect consumers and supervise new entrants into the banking system.

The Senate Banking Committee met Wednesday to review central bank lending facilities such as the Main Street Lending Program, which provides bank-issued loans to middle-market firms. But some lawmakers on the panel said the focus of pandemic relief has been misplaced.

A pandemic-driven surge in bank deposits helped drive the agency's insurance reserves below their statutory minimum.

The final version of the amended rule, like the original proposal, makes fair-lending claims tougher to prove. But it does soften language that otherwise might have allowed mortgage companies to use algorithms to prove nondiscrimination.

Bankers and fintech executives want lawmakers returning to Washington to focus on streamlined forgiveness and a second round of Paycheck Protection Program loans for small businesses.

Only one of the 118 loans bought by the Federal Reserve through Aug. 31 was close to the $250,000 minimum in the rescue program, aimed small to midsize businesses hurt by the pandemic.

In congressional testimony, the director of the credit union regulator's Office of Minority and Women Inclusion outlined steps the agency is taking to increase diversity at the agency.

Bank of America announced how it plans to spend a third of its $1 billion commitment to address racial and economic inequities and the effects of the coronavirus pandemic in communities of color.

The fintech and the Minnesota bank it acquired last week, renamed Mid-Central National Bank, intend to pioneer a new method of storing and moving money for consumers.