Economic news

The Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee voted Wednesday to raise interest rates to between 0.75% and 1%, the largest single rate hike since 2000.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown said Wednesday that the Senate would wait to confirm President Biden’s Federal Reserve picks until the return of Democrats recovering from the coronavirus.

In a recent survey, just over half of community bankers expressed concern that the central bank will harm the U.S. economy by raising rates too fast in its quest to contain inflation.

Lael Brainard was confirmed as vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors Tuesday in a 52-43 Senate vote, the first of four central bank nominees set for consideration by the chamber.

Joe Manchin, a key Democrat in the U.S. Senate, said he’s spoken to Michael Barr, President Joe Biden’s choice to be the U.S. Federal Reserve chief banking supervisor, and so far doesn’t see a problem with his nomination.

Although small banks and credit unions are enjoying healthier loan portfolios, they are also bracing for potential setbacks due to higher interest rates and inflation.

Bank-issued prepaid benefits cards were supposed to help state governments deliver these funds more efficiently. But the pandemic scrambled the economics of these programs.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell outlined four qualities a hypothetical digital currency in the U.S. must have while adding that no final decision has been made on whether to proceed with creating one.

Scott Colbert, executive vice president and chief economist at Commerce Trust Co., will discuss the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision and where they go from here.

Several central banks and the Bank for International Settlements have developed prototypes for a common digital currencies platform that has the potential to make cross-border payments more efficient.

Jamaica plans to give $16 of free money to the first 100,000 citizens who use its soon-to-be-launched Jam-Dex digital currency.

No one liked it when interest interest rates hit 21% in the early 1980s, but the actions of the Federal Reserve under Paul Volcker helped save the U.S. economy from true catastrophe. That kind of leadership is lacking in today’s Washington.

Roughly two dozen countries have issued central bank digital currencies or have pilots underway. But until financial services firms strengthen the security of their mobile apps, these payment tools are unlikely to gain widespread acceptance.

The country that gets it right first will see rapid business and job creation, attract the world’s best and brightest minds and set the standard other nations will follow.

There’s no universal case for central-bank digital currencies, according to International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, who urged policymakers to carefully weigh trade-offs as financial innovation enters a new phase.

A bipartisan group of House Financial Services Committee members says nonbanks as well as insured depository institutions should be allowed to issue cryptocurrencies pegged to U.S. dollars. That stance is a notable departure from financial regulators' recommendations.

By the end of the year, if it can clear regulatory and technical hurdles, the bank plans to launch tokenized dollars people could use to buy anything on the internet.

The work of creating a possible digital dollar inched ahead Thursday with research by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston into the code that could eventually support such a currency.

The Troy, Michigan-based bank is looking for companies already innovating across the various aspects of the home finance business.

Blazing demand for leveraged loans is allowing companies to reduce borrowing costs by tinkering with a provision many viewed as key to weaning the industry off the London interbank offered rate.