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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The world of short-term lending was shaken up Thursday as one regulator issued a rule cracking down on payday loans while another made it easier for banks to offer an alternative product.
October 5
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Randal Quarles was confirmed 65-32 as a Fed governor, and by voice vote as the vice chairman of banking supervision.
October 5
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A bill backed by House Democrats would establish a process to review big banks for patterns of consumer violations, ending possibly in culpable institutions losing their charter.
October 4
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Cynthia Blankenship, an executive at Bank of the West in Grapevine, Texas, has been a regular in Washington for years fighting for regulatory changes. She is encouraging other bankers to do likewise.
October 4
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Congress may soon try to limit the personal identifiable information that companies and the government can collect on consumers based on their reaction to the massive data breach at Equifax.
October 4
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Though FHFA Director Mel Watt stopped short of saying he would break with a Treasury agreement that forces all profits of the GSEs to go to the government, he emphasized that it couldn’t continue indefinitely.
October 3
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After the FSOC voted to rescind its systemic designation for AIG, it's unclear whether the interagency council will continue to appeal a court ruling overturning MetLife's SIFI designation.
October 2
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As governors prepare to designate new "opportunity zones," lenders and investors should take advantage of the chance to target capital to communities where it will both do good and generate strong returns.
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Banks can price in risk and manage their way around both left-wing and right-wing administrations. But the kind of uncertainty that arises from today's brand of politics is impossible to model.
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Efforts by individual states to rewrite existing rules governing interstate bank lending risk throwing the entire system into chaos. Only Congress has the ability to reestablish a workable set of national rules.
