CARES Act

Both the Federal Housing Finance Agency and Federal Housing Administration are extending relief for homeowners and renters due to the pandemic crisis.

The agencies completed steps to ease a community bank capital measure temporarily and to delay a new credit-loss accounting standard.

With big banks largely shunning the program, small banks see an opening to grab more market share in commercial lending.

Paralysis between Republicans and Democrats hurts the people who would benefit the most from digital delivery of government stimulus funds, argues Polyient Labs' Jeff Hinkle.

The head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston said the central bank had acquired stakes in 32 business loans as of Monday, four times the amount from two weeks earlier.

At its inaugural hearing, the committee appointed by lawmakers to oversee CARES Act implementation pressed for answers about why the Main Street Lending Program is off to such a slow start.

Just eight loans had been made as of late July, six of them through a single community bank in Florida, according to new data on the federal rescue program for small and midsize companies hurt by the pandemic.

Credit card balances declined most sharply as consumers cut back their spending due to the coronavirus pandemic and associated shutdown orders, the New York Fed said Thursday. But delinquencies also fell across all debt categories, thanks to government and lender relief efforts.

As Senate Republicans consider a new coronavirus relief package, the Federal Reserve chairman said easing the so-called Collins amendment would help financial institutions support the economy.

The enhanced jobless benefits in the coronavirus relief law enacted in March helped limit delinquencies and maintain consumer spending, analysts say. In their follow-up stimulus plan, Senate Republicans want to cut those benefits from $600 to $200 a week.