Interest rates

The company has agreed to pay at least $3.75 million to resolve allegations that it violated the District of Columbia’s 24% interest rate cap.

The U.S. Treasury Department defeated a blue-state challenge to a rule that exempts buyers of high-interest loans from state interest rate caps.

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.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank was ready to raise interest rates in March and didn’t rule out moving at every meeting to tackle the highest inflation in a generation.

The decision to drop the London interbank offered rate as a benchmark interest rate means that contracts for hundreds of trillions of dollars in financial assets need to be rewritten. U.S. regulators should allow existing agreements to be amended without the threat of massive litigation.

While money market fee waivers ate into the company’s revenue last quarter, as low interest rates led asset managers to make concessions to customers, executives predict a turnaround in 2022 after the Federal Reserve starts monetary tightening.

The Secured Overnight Financing Rate has benefited — amid the phaseout of Libor — from positive comments by regulators. Is a multirate environment, which some banks would prefer, still possible?

Germany’s finance watchdog fined Deutsche Bank 8.66 million euros ($9.8 million) over its handling of submissions for Euribor, a reference rate at the heart of a scandal that rocked the industry.

Analysts expect loan growth and higher interest rates to drive up equity prices next year, even in the face of the omicron variant and other risks.

Just three months ago, U.S. banks were still using the expiring benchmark rate for the vast majority of their new loans. But regulators said Friday the transition to alternative rates has accelerated ahead of a year-end cutoff.