Policy & Regulation

With multiple business sectors reeling from the pandemic, banks are facing tighter net interest margins, provisioning more for losses and seeing their balance sheets expand, the agency said in a report.

The Supreme Court ruled the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's leadership structure is unconstitutional and refused to hear a lawsuit over the NCUA's field of membership rule. Credit unions are watching to see what happens now.

In a split 5-4 decision, the justices gave presidents new power to remove the agency's head at will. The ruling could have far-reaching implications for other regulators with single directors.

The agency wants more timely information on the banks it supervises; investors filed a criminal complaint against Ernst & Young, calling their work “a disaster” for failing to expose the scandal.

While they are not dramatically opposed, Jelena McWilliams and Brian Brooks have articulated their own ideas on postal banking and the use of artificial intelligence in lending.

Some observers said the central bank should have suspended dividends entirely in response to an unprecedented economic emergency caused by the pandemic. Others said its more cautious moves were appropriate because big banks' capital is strong and the economy could bounce back.

Wells Fargo customers targeted with phishing attacks using calendar invites; Fed freezes stock buybacks, caps dividends after stress test results; Citigroup names Titi Cole its head of global operations and fraud prevention.

A recent blog post argues that the industry must get ready for the possibility of the Federal Reserve lowering rates below zero.

The Fed stopped short of banning payouts entirely following bank stress tests; banks get greater freedom to invest in venture capital funds and reduced collateral on swap trades.

Nearly 900 institutions are set to receive a payout related to the demise of Southwest Corporate FCU, but the agency could ultimately return as much as $2.5 billion tied to the corporate credit union failures of 2009 and 2010.