Interest rates

Executives and financial strategists are considering derivatives as a hedge against rising interest rates.

In an open letter to National Credit Union Administration Chairman Todd Harper, NAFCU's B. Dan Berger calls for the 89-year-old interest rate ceiling to be reconsidered.

More credit unions are diversifying their investments and accessing federal funding from multiple sources to shore up against risk.

The amount of U.S. junk bonds has fallen 11% from its peak in October 2021 to $1.41 trillion, according to a Bloomberg index tracking corporate high-yield debt.

Rates are rising and maturities are shortening in unsecured commercial paper, raising the possibility of a credit crunch and further regulatory intervention.

Financial tightening stemming from two recent bank collapses has served as its own check on inflation, according to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. He said the relatively small rate hike announced Wednesday was not the result of financial stability concerns.

Economists have warned since last summer that speedy monetary tightening could be destabilizing. This week, the Federal Reserve will decide whether to stay on that course.

The Bank Term Funding Program, rolled out by the central bank on Sunday night, offers par value for underwater securities that banks pledge to obtain short-term loans. Industry insiders expressed optimism on Monday that it will buy time for institutions that have been hit by rising interest rates.

The FDIC named Greg Carmichael, who retired last year as CEO of Fifth Third Bancorp, to run a bridge bank that will hold Signature's deposits and most of its assets.

SVB Financial Group shares extended their plunge before being halted in premarket trading for pending news as prominent venture capitalists recommended companies withdraw their money from the lender.

Shares in Silicon Valley Bank's parent company plunged 60% after executives announced they would sell a large bond portfolio at a big loss. The market "seems to be pricing in greater liquidity needs" than the bank currently anticipates, one analyst said.

The Dallas-based bank offered a more downbeat forecast than it did back in January, as rising rates have continued to put pressure on deposits.

The Philadelphia Fed president was slightly more upbeat about the latest inflation data than some of his counterparts.

The National Credit Union Administration has held the rate cap for loans issued by federally-chartered institutions in place since 1987, despite recent calls to raise it.

The Federal Reserve's quantitative-tightening program risks being propelled toward an early end as U.S. politicians bicker in Washington over raising the national debt limit, according to some economists and bond market participants.

The crypto rebound has gained so much speculative vigor that even tokens torpedoed last year by their dependence on the discredited mogul Sam Bankman-Fried have rallied, with some more than doubling this month.

The market volatility and interest rate hikes that gave U.S. banks their biggest windfall last year may prove to be their biggest headache in 2023.

The JPMorgan Chase CEO said the Federal Reserve's rate hikes might need to go beyond what's currently expected, but he's in favor of a pause to see the full impact of last year's increases.

The impact of a weakening economy on quarterly performance will become clearer by the second week of January as banks begin to report fourth-quarter earnings.

Recent clashes over how much investors should get paid when borrowers switch to a new benchmark are a small part of a much larger struggle by global regulators to shift markets away from the scandal-tainted London interbank offered rate.