Financial institutions

The leading Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee said Tuesday he was "optimistic" about lawmakers' making changes to improve the Dodd-Frank Act next year, while lauding JPMorgan Chase's decision to raise its minimum wage from $10.15 an hour to $12.

Attempting to impose the fundamental laws of a particular lending universe on another will lead to an eventual collapse of a particular firm or industry segment.

WASHINGTON — The House approved a spending bill Thursday that would change the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and take away the Financial Stability Oversight Council's power to designate nonbanks as systemically important.

Turmoil in marketplace lending has less to do with loan quality and more to do with how lenders price loans to meet supply and demand.

The number of customers who obtained 10 payday loans in 2015 outnumbered those who obtained just one, the California Department of Business Oversight said in a report Wednesday.

Federal Reserve Board Gov. Daniel Tarullo acknowledged that capital requirements for smaller banks are too complicated, suggesting they could be retooled to be like earlier Basel Committee standards.

For the second time in six weeks, the online lender Avant is taking steps to reduce the size of its workforce.

U.S banks have come a long way from the early days of the stress tests, when it was unclear if any would pass. The majority of banks easily cleared the 5% minimum level for capital under the severely adverse scenario as well as the vaguer qualitative test the Federal Reserve Board imposes, suggesting institutions have finally gotten a handle on the process. Still, it's useful to see which banks improved from last year, as well as the few which fell toward the back of the back.

The business case for real-time payments is not the opportunity to charge high fees. Rather, the payoff – which will take time – will come in retaining customers, lowering operational costs, and delivering timely financial insights to smartphone-toting customers.

The vast majority of big banks seem to be getting a handle on the costly, labor-intensive and time-consuming stress-testing process. But for a pair of large banking companies, Santander Holdings USA and Deutsche Bank Trust Corp., the stress tests have so far proven to be an unconquerable challenge.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council announced Wednesday it was rescinding the systemic designation of GE Capital, the first time the interagency body has de-designated a firm.

Seven weeks into a crisis precipitated by the ouster of the company's longtime CEO, the embattled marketplace lender is trying to convince shareholders that it is turning a corner.

The legislation to reform the Dodd-Frank Act promotes the idea that the best defense against another crisis is simpler, higher capital requirements, not prescriptive regulations.

The U.K.'s surprise vote last week to leave the European Union has upped the ante for the banks taking part in the Federal Reserve Board's second round of stress tests on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — Big banks have drastically reduced their share of the Federal Housing Administration market, a massive shift that has big implications, according to new analysis by the American Enterprise Institute.

The court's decision to return Madden v. Midland Funding to a lower court leaves unresolved a number of important questions for marketplace lenders and other parts of the consumer-finance industry.

In a setback for the U.S. consumer finance industry, the Supreme Court said Monday that it will not review a lower court's decision that bolstered the ability of states to enforce bans on high-cost lending.

After the United Kingdom's surprising vote to exit the European Union, the financial markets are in turmoil and U.S. banks are left trying to assess their risks.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., slammed a House GOP bill to reform financial regulation on Thursday, arguing it is being misrepresented by its author, Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling.

Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen signaled Wednesday that the central bank could support a House Republican effort to reduce banks' regulatory burden in return for institutions holding higher capital, but said such a deal should only be open to small banks.