Coronavirus

The company is one of the first to share information on impacted clients, forbearance requests and emergency loan applications.

JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and U.S. Bancorp, along with 200 state-chartered banks and credit unions, have agreed to let borrowers skip payments for 90 days if their finances have been upended by the pandemic.

Details of the $2 trillion deal were still fluid Wednesday, but lawmakers were closing in on a plan that would aim to put lenders and consumers alike on stronger financial footing as they weather the coronavirus pandemic.

Mastercard is part of an expanding trend toward easing restrictions to entice consumers to choose contactless payments over cash and plastic during the coronavirus.

Alliance Data Systems, which has substantial exposure to the mall-based retail sector, sought Tuesday to assuage investors' fears about the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Bankers will be pressed on upcoming earnings calls to forecast how the coronavirus pandemic — and the government's response — will shape credit quality, margins and fee income.

Policymakers should abolish the new accounting standard because it could distract banks at exactly the moment they need to be focused on pulling their communities from the brink of recession.

Many banks are offering low-interest loans to help consumers and small businesses withstand the economic shocks of the pandemic. Some are also doing away with ATM, overdraft and late fees because, as one CEO put it, that revenue “is not the most important thing right now.”

The $2 trillion deal passed by the Senate late Wednesday would aim to put banks and consumers alike on stronger financial footing as they weather the coronavirus pandemic.

For a growing number of people, the coronavirus has disrupted their daily lives in how they work, where they eat and how they spend their money. This drastic change has caused a boom in some sectors of the economy and a bust in other areas.

Banks and credit unions should make it their top priority to pair with the central bank in distributing financial relief to small businesses, even if that means putting everything else on hold.

Margins will be squeezed after the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates earlier this month to counteract the economic fallout from the coronavirus.

It's still unclear how the coronavirus pandemic will alter payment habits over time — will consumers avoid cash out of fear of germs, or will they favor it as the one payment option that nearly all merchants accept? An impending change in interchange rates may tip the scales in cash's favor.

Targeted marketing efforts must go beyond explaining the functionality and instead educate consumers about all benefits that contactless can offer. Responsible communication should prioritize those who are at the highest risk for infection, says The Futurist Group's Demitry Estrin.

As companies move work off-site because of the pandemic, a host of issues have arisen around remote access, network monitoring and cybersecurity.

The regulation issued late on Tuesday directs state-regulated financial institutions to give mortgage borrowers at least 90 days of forbearance if they can show financial hardship resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. It also requires banks and credit unions to provide relief on ATM fees and credit card late payment fees.

The central bank will prioritize monitoring and outreach while reducing examination activity due to the coronavirus pandemic until at least the end of April.

It joins a growing list of banks temporarily shuttering branches as the novel coronavirus continues to spread across the country and more Americans stay home. Meanwhile, Citi and rival Wells Fargo became the latest banks to announce plans to pay bonuses to front-line employees.

The coronavirus stimulus package has resurrected calls for the U.S. government to offer a central bank digital currency, public mobile wallets and postal banking—controversial ideas that are hard to pull off, but exist outside the U.S. and could dent interchange fees and private stablecoin projects like Facebook’s Libra.

The bank has asked managers review job postings and pull listings for roles that don’t need to be filled immediately, according to people familiar with the matter.