Interest rates

With the deadline for a federal-debt-limit renewal nearly a month away, bankers are dreading the prospect of higher funding costs, strained liquidity, weaker commercial loan demand and other ramifications if Washington does not act.

A Fed committee studying Libor’s replacement has dwelled heavily on the potential impact to the derivatives market. Loans may become a bigger part of the conversation later this year, but the panel plans to leave a lot of the specifics up to lenders.

Many banks are adopting an “it takes money to make money” approach, paying more interest on deposits in exchange for loan growth, fee income and customer retention.

As much as $2.5 trillion, or nearly half of bank deposit growth since the crisis, may be attributable to the central bank's quantitative easing. If investors start drawing down on their accounts to buy back assets from the Fed, the trend could dampen liquidity at certain banks, add upward pressure on deposit prices and reshape M&A.

Profits rose 20% at the Texas bank, but net interest margin growth last quarter, and the bank’s margin outlook for the rest of this year, disappointed analysts and investors.

The Cincinnati company reaped the benefit of the latest round of interest rate hikes, as a higher net interest margin and lower costs helped overcome the drop in lending.

Clearing services, assets under custody and administration and other parts of the trust bank's operations rose in the second quarter, all good news as it shifts leadership from Gerald Hassell to former Visa CEO Charlie Scharf.

House Republicans are ramping up their criticism of the Fed for making interest payments to member banks on excess reserves, and may have identified a way to counter claims that the payments are critical to monetary policy.

Net interest margins are on the rise and banks have the green light to return more capital to shareholders, but commercial lending and consumer credit quality remain trouble spots.

The expansion of the Federal Reserve’s portfolio of Treasury debt and mortgage-backed securities has a bigger impact on the credit markets than paying banks interest on excess reserves.

Contrary to others’ opinion, interest on excess reserves is part of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy that serves to reduce volatility and encourage growth.

The German bank posted two consecutive years of losses partly because of misconduct fines tied to the Libor and other scandals.

The Federal Reserve’s next policy actions will have profound impact on whether the U.S. income and wealth gap grows even wider.

Loan demand disappointed as optimism for economic growth under President Trump gave way to uncertainty over the prospects for regulatory relief and tax reform. Credit quality held up, but the retail and health care sectors have become potential trouble spots. Here’s a recap drawn from banks’ quarterly earnings calls.

Readers weigh in on Wells Fargo investors reelecting state regulators suing the OCC, Wells Fargo's annual meeting, ultralow interest rates and more.

After such a period of collective euphoria following the November election, how does the manager of a large institution explain a declining stock price to investors?

The Westbury, N.Y., company is angling for an acquisition as it approaches the $50 billion-asset mark.

Monetary policy was intended to act as an accelerant for an economy in recession, and did in fact accomplish that goal early on; however, its benefits have waned, if not reversed, over time.

Wintrust’s mortgage revenues fell in the first quarter, but net interest income picked up the slack.

Negative interest rate policies have not been shown to speed up spending or borrowing. In some cases, countries with such policies have seen their savings rates continuing to climb.