Policymaking

Higher net interest income and securities gains boosted quarterly profit to $62.6 billion, which was 4% higher from a year earlier. But potential trouble signs from lower interest rates may emerge.

The Trump administration is not backing down even after a federal court blocked guidance that would have limited the operations of national housing funds.

Community banks and tech companies that are happy the central bank is building a next-generation system are not as pleased with its four- to five-year timeline. But big banks see the slow rollout as an opportunity to expand their own instant payment network.

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina called for the panel to hold a hearing on what he termed the danger that the Federal Reserve will meddle in the 2020 presidential election.

Sheila Bair, who holds board seats at several other organizations, will sit on Fannie's compensation, corporate governance and risk policy committees.

After a news report said the bank kept alive accounts customers thought they had closed, Sen. Elizabeth Warren told acting CEO Allen Parker in a letter that Wells is "still fundamentally broken."

The Department of Housing and Urban Development will remove some barriers to government-insured condominium lending next month, including a post-crisis measure housing industry groups have long complained about.

With women and minorities holding less than 25% of top positions at the eight largest U.S. banks, House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters and other Democrats called on banks to improve their recruiting efforts and invest in programs aimed at building pipelines of diverse talent.

The Federal Housing Administration is aiming to limit the share of borrowers who have been withdrawing money from the value of their homes.

Two weeks after lawmakers grilled a Facebook exec over its crypto plans, they acknowledged there are benefits from digital currency technology and urged U.S. companies to take the lead.

Eric Blankenstein, now at HUD, is under fire for asking a subordinate to defend him after it was revealed he wrote racially charged blogs 14 years earlier.

A group of senators on the Banking Committee sent a letter to the central bank chairman grilling him on the agency's efforts to develop a real-time payments system.

The Democratic presidential candidate argued in a blog post that the U.S. could avoid a recession by canceling most student debt and authorizing regulators to more aggressively monitor leveraged lending.

The agreement with authorities including the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general — and possibly the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — may be announced as soon as Monday.

The Treasury secretary said the U.S. government has significant concerns about digital currencies, including their potential as tools for money launderers.

David Marcus, who oversees Facebook’s digital wallet, plans to tell Congress that the company will roll out Libra only after it has "received appropriate approvals.”

Lawmakers circulated a bill just ahead of hearings on Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency that would prohibit companies with over $25 billion in annual revenue from launching a digital financial asset.

Christopher Waller is a conventional choice drawn from within the Fed’s own ranks. Judy Shelton has spent decades outside mainstream economics. But both are expected to echo the president’s call for lowering interest rates.

A group of Senate Democrats have called on HUD Secretary Ben Carson to reverse his agency’s opinion that borrowers in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program are ineligible for FHA loans.

The president signed an executive order Tuesday establishing a White House council dedicated to examining regulatory barriers to affordable housing.