Banking

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra says that a recently proposed data-access rule would provide a competitive edge to small banks over their larger competitors.

JPMorgan Chase pilots Mastercard's open-banking tech for U.S. bill payment; Benson F. "Buzz" Roberts will retire at year-end as CEO of the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders; and venture capital firms pour funds into bank vendors.

The New York State Department of Financial Services and the Federal Reserve Board penalized Metropolitan Commercial Bank for failing to prevent $300 million in fraud in a prepaid card program. It is the latest example of a bank being sanctioned in connection with rampant fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We'll be taking steps to offset expense pressures," CEO Curtis Farmer told analysts after the company reported an 11% year-over-year jump in costs and falling profits.

An advocate for retail merchants takes issue with a BankThink article criticizing the Credit Card Competition Act.

Executives say the $213 billion-asset company's strong credit performance in the third quarter positions it to pursue loan growth next year.

High deposit costs and low-yielding assets weighed on the company's net interest income, which fell to its weakest level since the first quarter of 2017. But Key executives predicted that a turnaround is coming soon.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's proposal would give consumers a legal right to grant third parties access to financial data for a specific use, but firms cannot sell the data or use it for their own benefit — including by feeding it into algorithms or artificial intelligence.

Six weeks after unveiling a broad restructuring plan, the North Carolina bank said it has already taken several steps to lower expenses, and that various cost-reduction initiatives are on parallel paths.

There are good reasons to be skeptical in the face of predictions of a revolution in banking led by generative artificial intelligence.

Questions about how it will be implemented and whether the rest of the market will follow the agency's lead make the expense involved difficult to estimate.

Worried about the economy and new Fed rules on capital, the bank wants to hang onto its money just in case, CFO Daryl Bible told investors as he outlined second-quarter earnings.

The Rhode Island-based bank is bolstering its cash position in the face of worries about office loans, stricter capital requirements for regional lenders and the possibility of economic shock from overseas conflicts.

The $668 billion-asset company sold investment securities and certain mortgages to avoid more stringent liquidity and other federal requirements for larger banks. Yet CEO Andy Cecere says U.S. Bancorp is "not under an asset cap at all."

The "Get My Rate" tool, launched on Sept. 4 in collaboration with SavvyMoney, tells current and prospective members what loan rates they qualify for without adversely affecting their credit scores.

Charge-offs at the Detroit-based lender rose last quarter, as borrowers had a tougher time keeping up with their car payments. But so far, credit quality is staying within expectations, and company executives don't anticipate that the rest of the year will be much worse.

The Tennessee bank said a $72 million charge-off tied to a borrower in bankruptcy shaved 10 cents per share off its earnings. Management downplayed the issue, calling it "idiosyncratic," and emphasized that it was growing its loan portfolio.

American Bank of Oklahoma agreed to a consent order in August to settle allegations from the Department of Justice over redlining. However, the institution strenuously objected to references to the Tulsa Race Massacre in the agreement and asked that the language be stricken.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Section 1071 data collection rule challenge will likely not advance past President Joe Biden's desk, and Republicans don't have the votes to overturn his veto.

Credit unions are seeing tepid growth at best, due in part to banks using online offerings to win over consumers.