Liquidity

Properly designed public banks would be safer than private banks while promoting economic growth.

The Treasury’s latest tax collection may preview how the shrinking of the Federal Reserve’s $9 trillion balance sheet, or quantitative tightening, will unfold for the markets and global liquidity.

Standard Chartered has been handed a record fine by the U.K.’s top banking regulator after a spreadsheet error resulted in the emerging markets-focused lender overestimating its access to U.S. dollar funding.

Figure Technologies, the startup co-founded by Mike Cagney, created a platform to help private companies raise and trade equity using its blockchain technology.

Investment activity that takes place outside the banking system requires a new, broad-based set of global regulations to tackle inherent instability, the Bank for International Settlements said.

The influx that began around the start of the pandemic has yet to subside, as loan demand remains weak even though consumers are again spending money. Some of the excess liquidity now seems likely to remain for a long time, forcing banks to make tough calls about how and when to deploy it.

States have the option of adopting the oversight framework issued by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, which resembles capital and liquidity plan proposed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

A big funding source for the Paycheck Protection Program is set to expire on March 31. Its demise would pinch nonbanks that are originating and buying loans, especially if Congress continues the PPP beyond this month.

Harris Simmons of Zions Bancorp. warned that excess deposits could suppress loan demand and pose an inflation threat, while Darren King of M&T tried to reassure investors that deposits will be less volatile than some fear once the economy improves.

Comerica, Citizens Financial and other companies are buying up securities, paying off high-cost borrowing and trying to develop specialty lending niches. But loan growth remains weak, and the likelihood of extreme volatility in deposits makes it hard to plan ahead.

Deposits are soaring while loan demand lags and mortgage-backed securities offer weak returns. So the Alabama company has parked loads of cash at the Fed in hopes the economy will pick up steam before profit margins suffer.

Provisions implemented under the CARES Act that made it easier for institutions to utilize NCUA's Central Liquidity Facility have been extended for a year with the signing of Consolidated Appropriations Act.

Thousands of institutions could lose a safety net on New Year's Day if Congress fails to act before leaving for the holidays.

The move comes a day after the Federal Reserve had balked at the Treasury Department's demand that it return funds meant for pandemic relief that have so far gone unused.

Democrats called the decision by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin "misguided," arguing that it's too soon to shutter the Federal Reserve's emergency-lending programs. Republicans say the programs have run their course and should expire a the end of the year.

Global regulators are preparing to tighten restrictions on companies believed to have threatened the financial system at the height of pandemic-fueled volatility.

The chairman of the National Credit Union Administration said during his limited time in a Senate Banking Committee hearing that he hoped changes to the agency's Central Liquidity Facility would last for the duration of the pandemic.

The industry is calling for lawmakers to extend changes to NCUA's Central Liquidity Facility and more before Congress adjourns.

The family-owned bank from the South and the New York commercial lender each would fill a clear need for the other. First Citizens would gain business lending expertise and an online deposit-gathering platform, and CIT would get the cheap deposits it coveted.

SaveBetter.com from Deposit Solutions lets consumers shop for different savings products through one portal and provides national exposure for participating banks, which include Ponce Bank in New York and Central Bank of Kansas City.