Biden Administration

Requiring financial firms to report customer account data to the IRS as a means of catching tax cheats would be intrusive and costly, industry officials say. Backers of the measure say those claims are exaggerated.

President Biden urged a group of chief executive officers to help improve cybersecurity across the nation’s critical infrastructure and economy, citing a lack of trained professionals to adequately protect the U.S.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen lobbied the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee on the measure requiring bank-provided customer data to help crack down on tax cheats and pay for the $3.5 trillion spending plan.

President Biden plans to nominate officials for three Democratic seats on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the nation’s main derivatives regulator.

If Biden appointees are going to apply more antitrust scrutiny to bank mergers, they need to factor into their analysis the competitive threat that banks face from fintechs and other less-regulated players.

The Biden administration plans to select Kristin Johnson, a law professor who previously worked on Wall Street, for a Democratic seat on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The White House and the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced steps to help nonprofits and public agencies buy foreclosed properties, among other initiatives, as part of a plan to boost supply over the next three years.

If the Justice Department and other agencies are serious about overhauling the bank merger process, they need to start by establishing whether consolidation helps or hurts consumers.

Federal Reserve Gov. Lael Brainard spoke with the Biden-Harris Federal Reserve transition team in January and with the president’s Council of Economic Advisers in May, her calendar shows.

Institutional independence is a big part of what makes the Federal Reserve work. But quantitative easing, new forays into climate and digital currency and a blurring of the line between monetary and fiscal policy might make that independence harder to maintain.

Chief executives from across the business world are set to join President Biden for a discussion Wednesday on how industry and the federal government can partner to improve cybersecurity in the face of debilitating ransomware and cyberattacks.

Community banks have played and will continue to play a key role in supporting local economies across the country. Join us in a lively conversation with Dennis E. Nixon, President & CEO of International Bank of Commerce (Laredo, Texas) & Chairman, International Bancshares Corporation and Eddie Aldrete, Senior Vice President at International Bank of Commerce as we discuss: (1) the need for bankers and the business community to become involved in political issues. From minimum wage and issues that affect small businesses to regulatory issues that directly affect the banking industry, banking and business leaders need to be thought leaders in the public conversation and (2) how bankers can play a pivotal advocacy role in the free trade process.

The Biden administration will soon face tough decisions on whether to renominate Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chair and whom to select for vice chair of supervision and other posts.

The agency signaled during the Trump administration that it would approve more industrial loan companies following an extended freeze in new charters due to policy disputes. But the thaw will likely prove temporary now that the board's makeup has changed.

Nearly eight months of the Biden administration have gone by without a word from the White House on a nominee to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Here are some of the candidates who have been in (and in some cases fallen out of) the running.

The guarantor of mortgage-backed securities has been without a Senate-confirmed president for four and a half years. The vacancy makes it difficult for other government agencies to coordinate housing objectives, according to stakeholders.

Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee objected to Biden administration picks for key jobs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development based on their past criticism of police practices. The nominees, including the prospective Federal Housing Administration chief, said their statements were taken out of context.

Sen. Patrick Toomey, the top Republican on the Banking Committee, criticized acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu and others in the Biden administration for advancing “social goals that are unrelated to banking.”

The U.S. economic recovery could take a major hit if the Biden administration fails to extend the federal government’s pandemic moratorium on student-loan payments past September, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.

Michael Hsu is reorganizing the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency so that he directly oversees staffers who develop examination strategy. Some analysts suggest the move could result in more aggressive oversight by an agency long accused of being too cozy with national banks.