Biden Administration

The Treasury Department and U.S. regulators aim to boost demand for assets that tackle climate change, while preventing companies from making claims that could be considered “greenwashing,” or overstating the significance of emissions reductions and sustainability efforts.

Democrats want regulators to actively protect the financial system from losses tied to extreme weather events, while Republicans say climate policy is "beyond the scope" of their mission.

Jelena McWilliams, a Trump appointee, pushed back Wednesday on reports that an incoming Democratic majority may be able to enact policy at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. without her support. "The chairman really controls the board agenda," she said.

In its final days, the Trump administration imposed limits on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s holdings of mortgages with loan-to-value ratios above 90% and certain other characteristics. Critics say the changes were unnecessary and disproportionately penalize borrowers of color.

Nellie Liang, President Biden's pick to serve as the Treasury's undersecretary for domestic finance, didn't wait to be nominated before beginning the task of strengthening Wall Street oversight.

Many in Washington have been in suspense about whether the Biden administration would favor a former Obama official or a financial inclusion advocate for comptroller of the currency. Mehrsa Baradaran, the candidate preferred by community activist groups, appears to have the edge.

Credit scores have an effect on almost every aspect of a person's financial life. A less-than-ideal credit score can make it much harder to get a house or car loan, start a business, or even get a job. President Biden plans to change credit reporting So what does the new administration's plan mean for consumers and lenders? In this episode, we explore the pros and cons of the Biden proposal, what it means for consumers, and how it will impact lending institutions' strategy and operations.

Some nominees poised to take their agencies in a new direction appear headed for Senate confirmation while an intraparty squabble has delayed the administration’s choice to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Here’s the roster update.

Michael Barr, an Obama-era Treasury Department official, is no longer expected to be nominated to lead a regulator that oversees Wall Street’s biggest banks, according to people familiar with the matter.

The industry wants regulators to extend a temporary measure making it easier to satisfy the supplementary leverage ratio. But Democrats’ control of the White House and Congress has given a bigger platform to those who say banks have had enough relief.

As government debt swells, the outer limits of what the U.S. can safely borrow are becoming less and less clear.

Rohit Chopra, President Biden's pick to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, told a Senate panel he would do more to protect veterans from foreclosure, empower consumers to dispute data on their credit records and crack down on student loan servicers that aren't helping troubled borrowers.

During the Trump era, the bank regulators couldn’t see eye to eye on how to modernize the Community Reinvestment Act. But a looming leadership change atop the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is boosting optimism that they can harmonize their approaches.

In an analysis of the pandemic's impact on the housing market, the agency said nearly 10% of households could be at risk of eviction or foreclosure despite government programs to enable homeowners to delay their payments.

Rohit Chopra, President Biden’s nominee to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has not minced words in calling out private companies for wrongdoing. He could get a grilling from Banking Committee Republicans and some opposition on the Senate floor.

Detecting business dealings with banned parties means screening a maze of transactions, and Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control supports calls for the industry to take a risk-based approach. But regulators effectively require banks to track everything, which is unproductive.

It would ignore technical glitches plaguing the entire Paycheck Protection Program and could end up delaying loans to larger borrowers who also need relief, bank executives and their trade groups say.

The Banking Committee will hold a confirmation hearing on March 2 for Rohit Chopra and Gary Gensler. They are the administration's picks, respectively, to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

More than a decade after the near collapse of the financial system and the bruising fight over Dodd-Frank put the industry and a Democratic administration in conflict, President Biden and the financial services sector are allied over the COVID-19 relief plan.

Only businesses with 20 or fewer employees will be eligible to apply for forgivable loans from the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program.