Regulation

A congressional resolution that invalidates the regulation issued last fall by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency would help regulators crack down on so-called rent-a-bank schemes that promote predatory lending, the president said before signing the measure.

Financial services companies are set to be exempt from a global plan to make multinational firms pay more tax to the countries where they operate, in a win for U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak.

Six online lenders and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition have asked the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for clarity on whether disparate-impact rules apply to lending decisions made by machines.

Sixty-one percent of executives at large U.S. banks said their institution would be prepared to comply with the kind of testing now happening in the U.K., according to a new survey. But experts question whether bankers are underestimating the data-gathering challenges ahead.

Nine of the 12 largest banking companies in the U.S. proposed higher quarterly payouts to shareholders. In announcing the actions, the banks touted their strength after more than a year of economic dislocation.

Some of the 23 large banks that participated in last week’s stress tests will be better positioned to reward shareholders than others, since they padded their capital amid the pandemic. Still, all are expected to tread cautiously amid ongoing economic uncertainty.

Four companies — Regions Financial, MUFG Americas Holdings and the U.S. arms of the Royal Bank of Canada, BMO Financial— felt they had something to prove to the Federal Reserve after being assigned higher capital buffers than most of their peers last year. Will their decisions pay off for shareholders?

The Federal Reserve found that under its harshest stress-test scenario, bank capital ratios would decline to 10.6% on average — well above the 4.5% minimum requirement. Restrictions imposed on dividend payments and share repurchases during the economic crisis last year will be lifted after June 30.

The House voted on Thursday to dismantle a Trump-era rule that sought to make it easier for national banks to make and sell loans through fintech partnerships.

The Community Home Lenders Association has called for suspension of federal limits on the loan volumes that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can purchase from individual lenders. The demand came on the same day that the Biden administration fired FHFA Director Mark Calabria and started the process of nominating his successor.