Policy & Regulation

The Federal Reserve announced it had approved the merger, marking the final regulatory hurdle the banks needed to clear. But a lawsuit seeking to stop the deal is still ongoing.

President Trump Tuesday told reporters he would not delay announcing his pick to fill a new vacancy on the Federal Reserve Board despite threats from Republican Senators to block any Fed nomination until a recently-disclosed Justice Department investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell is resolved.

Top executives at the nation's largest bank spoke Tuesday about shifting dynamics in the credit card business, Federal Reserve independence, the bank's plan to increase spending in 2026 and its large portfolio of loans to nonbank financial institutions.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday morning that consumer prices rose 0.3% in December, with annual inflation stuck at 2.7%, lending credence to the Federal Reserve's cautious stance toward interest rates heading into 2026.

The largest bank in the country bulked up its reserves by $2.2 billion for potential credit hits from the Apple card portfolio, which JPMorgan is taking over from Goldman Sachs.

Financial markets took a tumble Monday morning after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell announced that he was the subject of a Justice Department inquiry concerning the central bank's headquarters renovation. Lawmakers and former Fed officials decried the move as political intimidation.

A report from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, released Thursday found that most sudden account closures were spurred by supervisory pressure rather than political or religious bias on the part of the banks, a finding that is at odds with the White House's framing of the issue.

The Trump administration's decision to launch a criminal investigation of the Federal Reserve chair is a blatant abuse of power that threatens to undermine confidence in the financial stability of the U.S.

Following President Trump's aggressive bank deregulation agenda, the FDIC and OCC, and occasionally the increasingly politicized Fed, are in a race to slash compliance requirements. Bankers should remember that the pendulum can always swing back.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank has been served grand jury subpoenas and been threatened with criminal indictment, moves he called "pretexts" to influence interest rates through "political pressure or intimidation."