Banking

Thanks to their close relationship with the card networks, banks stand to benefit most from deals like Mastercard’s agreement to buy Finicity and Visa’s pending purchase of Plaid. The prospects for fintechs and consumers are dicier.

With multiple business sectors reeling from the pandemic, banks are facing tighter net interest margins, provisioning more for losses and seeing their balance sheets expand, the agency said in a report.

The company announced a slate of changes on Monday that includes the creation of a new position overseeing strategy for corporate and commercial banking.

On Mar. 31, 2020. Dollars in thousands.

The agency wants more timely information on the banks it supervises; investors filed a criminal complaint against Ernst & Young, calling their work “a disaster” for failing to expose the scandal.

Two years after a consumer protection law changed how banks and other companies handle customer information, a new proposal aims for more sweeping reforms.

Some observers said the central bank should have suspended dividends entirely in response to an unprecedented economic emergency caused by the pandemic. Others said its more cautious moves were appropriate because big banks' capital is strong and the economy could bounce back.

Wells Fargo customers targeted with phishing attacks using calendar invites; Fed freezes stock buybacks, caps dividends after stress test results; Citigroup names Titi Cole its head of global operations and fraud prevention.

The Loan Source, the nonbank lender buying the Paycheck Protection Program loans, has similar deals in place with other lenders.

A recent blog post argues that the industry must get ready for the possibility of the Federal Reserve lowering rates below zero.

Ezequiel Szafir, CEO of Banco Santander's digital-only Openbank, sees banks of the future looking increasingly like Amazon.com — with online storefronts for financial products.

Now perhaps more than ever, banks and their proxies need to show tact when communicating with past-due borrowers.

HSBC is planning to shift services away from its branches in a push to make more of its customers migrate to its digital and mobile channels as it embarks on a massive cost and jobs cutting program.

The Fed stopped short of banning payouts entirely following bank stress tests; banks get greater freedom to invest in venture capital funds and reduced collateral on swap trades.

Nearly 900 institutions are set to receive a payout related to the demise of Southwest Corporate FCU, but the agency could ultimately return as much as $2.5 billion tied to the corporate credit union failures of 2009 and 2010.

Deferral periods on scores of commercial loans will soon be ending, and many banks’ profits this year could turn on whether borrowers can resume making payments or will seek extensions.

National Credit Union Administration Chairman Rodney Hood told a NAFCU audience now is the time to take action on the member business lending cap so credit unions can continue to help with the coronavirus recovery.

Titi Cole was recruited away from Wells Fargo to join Citi as head of global operations and fraud prevention. She’ll report to Jane Fraser, the CEO of global consumer banking.

Arbor Bancorp and FNBH Bancorp said the pandemic had created uncertainty about the regulatory process for securing approval for the deal.

Despite success lobbying for PPP inclusion and the elimination of Regulation D, the industry must continue to push for additional reforms.