Capital requirements

With policymakers focused on ending Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s conservatorship, their regulator is reorganizing key units and adding staff to position itself for the long term.

The regulator said the investment bank and financial services company will help in the process of strengthening Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s capital standing for their eventual exit from conservatorship.

The central bank is aiming to finish a rule creating a streamlined capital buffer ahead of the upcoming round of stress testing, but industry experts say that timeline may be too ambitious.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mark Calabria discussed the possibility of having Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac operate under a consent order to allow the government-sponsored enterprises to be able to raise capital.

The 10 largest publicly traded euro-area lenders will see their capital requirements stabilize in 2020 after years of increases, according to recent filings. That may create space for higher dividends and buybacks, bolstering banking stocks.

A risk-based capital rule for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is expected to top the agenda in 2020 as the companies’ regulator executes plans for their release into the private sector.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s proposal to subject bank deals to greater public scrutiny should instead be addressed through reforms to the Community Reinvestment Act.

The central bank gave the seven banks passing grades on their stress tests but said that they will need to start holding more high-quality capital to guard against a potential economic downturn.

Lawmakers blasted an apparent decision by the OCC and FDIC to move forward with a proposal to reform the Community Reinvestment Act without the support of the Fed.

A proposal to modernize the Community Reinvestment Act could be just a snippet of what regulators try to accomplish as they wrap up 2019.

The Cleveland Fed president dismissed concerns about the central bank's faster payments system competing with The Clearing House's network, while saying that a national digital currency is less of a necessity in the U.S. than in other countries.

A prominent credit union blogger is calling for the National Credit Union Administration to follow the Federal Reserve and FDIC's lead on possibly revamping the risk-rating system.

The ECB and BaFin say dual roles “could undermine” bank's restructuring efforts; JPM shifts cash into long-term bonds because of capital rules.

At a House hearing covering a whole host of housing finance reform topics, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's regulator said "if the circumstances" call for eliminating investors, "we will."

Allowing the mortgage giants to retain profits resolves a short-term capital shortfall, but how much capital they would need after exiting conservatorship is still the bigger question.

The company was the only no-show at the gathering of Facebook’s payments partners; HSBC was fined $650,000 for violating swaps risk management rules.

The revised trading rule is seen as a credit negative for the banking industry.

The consumer agency is investigating Bank of America over “potentially unauthorized” accounts; why fintech rollouts are magnets for fraud; KeyCorp’s Beth Mooney to retire next year; and more from this week’s most-read stories.

The proposed reforms of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have gotten all the attention, but the administration also wants to scale back the Federal Housing Administration, expand its capital cushion and adopt risk-based pricing. Some of the ideas have former agency officials concerned.

Federal appeals court judges in New Orleans on Friday appeared to back claims by investors that Treasury's "net worth sweep" is illegal.