Policymaking

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.

Public-sector development of a speedier settlement service, to operate alongside the one being developed by The Clearing House, is crucial for seeing that institutions of all sizes are able to take advantage of this technology.

The House passed a spending bill amendment aimed at providing further clarity to banks looking to provide services to cannabis businesses.

Senators will examine the social media giant’s plan to offer a digital currency. House Financial Services Committee leaders have already criticized the idea.

Lawmakers recently introduced legislation to delay implementation of a new accounting standard for current expected loan losses. But policymakers should seek to preserve the accounting body’s independence.

Public-sector development of a speedier settlement service, to operate alongside the one being developed by The Clearing House, is crucial for seeing that institutions of all sizes are able to take advantage of this technology.

There are clear actions that regulators at the CFPB, SEC and FHFA can take to help attract investors into the housing market, argues former FHFA Director Ed DeMarco.

The interpretation by HUD, conveyed in a letter to Congress by Assistant Secretary Len Wolfson, appeared to contradict the agency's earlier comments about borrowers in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Despite renewed calls from Democrats looking to USPS to offer banking services, policymakers should instead consider reforms that would permit private-sector firms like Walmart and Amazon to offer a wider array of financial products.

The agency’s new guidance would limit some nonprofits’ ability to help borrowers pay their down payments, leading to higher home costs.

The information the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau collects about customer problems can be valuable, but analysts need to move past the headline numbers.