Banking Politics & Policy News
American Banker's Politics & Policy coverage delivers news and analysis on how legislative action, federal agency rulemaking, regulatory politics, and public policy debates shape banking strategy, risk, competition, and compliance. Coverage explores congressional priorities, executive branch initiatives, regulatory agency actions, and the political forces that shape and impact the operating environment for financial institutions, payments companies, fintechs and distributed finance companies.
Bank leaders must navigate a dynamic policy environment where congressional action, regulatory priorities, and political forces influence capital standards, supervisory expectations, digital asset frameworks, deposit insurance, consumer rules, and competitive dynamics.
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Federal financial agencies’ role in combating climate change has become a politically polarized topic, as the withdrawal of Fed nominee Sarah Bloom Raskin shows. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other regulators could make changes to exam procedures and take other steps that don’t require congressional cooperation.
March 22
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Credit Agricole has suspended its activities in Russia, joining a growing list of lenders scaling back their business in the country after the invasion of Ukraine.
March 22
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Russian banks are reportedly courting the Chinese payment network to overcome the loss of Visa and Mastercard. The strategy would test China's willingness to provoke a response from the international community.
March 22
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The City Council recently voted 15-1 to establish a financial authority that would provide credit enhancements on loans to underserved borrowers. Public banking advocates say the effort is both an interim step for Philadelphia and a test case for other cities.
March 21
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Sanctions imposed over the Ukraine war prompted the French bank to tell commercial clients it won't process their Russian transactions after March.
March 21
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Banking executives and analysts worry that the Federal Reserve's aggressive plan to raise interest rates will be insufficient to tame inflation and overcome economic fallout from the war in Ukraine.
March 21
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Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank will take the “necessary steps” to get inflation down even if that means increasing interest rates more rapidly than currently anticipated and eventually to levels that slow the broader economy.
March 21
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The new law's reciprocal and custodial deposit provisions recognize what the evidence has shown for two decades. They should spur, not substitute for, the broader work of protecting America's depositors.
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As written, new capital standards for U.S. banks fail to account for the additional risk posed by many home loan clients who obtain second mortgages. Fixing the problem will significantly reduce the rule's benefit to banks.
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The only thing we know about the next financial crisis is that it won't look like the last one. But specific changes to bank safety and soundness requirements and clearer regulatory authorities would help us respond.
