Politics

Federal Reserve Gov. Michael Barr — who until February served as the agency's top regulator — said community development functions have benefits for the Fed's monetary policy, supervision and research goals.

Lenders have been working to shrink their rent-regulated real estate loan portfolios since a watershed state law passed in 2019, but those plans may be accelerated.

Supposedly written to expand consumers' "freedom," the rule implementing open banking laws is actually central planning in disguise. It can't be allowed to supplant better, market-driven solutions.

Banking has long been overseen by independent agencies, though that independence has been waning for years. With the Supreme Court poised to weigh in, experts are questioning where — and whether — to redraw the line between politics and policy.

The Texas attorney general has accused WEX Bank of "debanking" a firearm supplier, but the Maine-based bank said it does not discriminate against any industry.

Regulators proposed a rule to replace the 2% enhanced supplementary leverage ratio with a capital charge equal to half of a bank's global systemically important bank surcharge. Low-risk assets will continue to count toward leverage requirements under the proposal.

As the Federal Reserve considers changes to the supplemental leverage ratio, Fed Board Chair Jerome Powell said that effort is one piece of a broader deregulation package that will also address the Basel III capital rules.

Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., sent a letter to banking regulators urging them to preserve the enhanced Supplemental Leverage Ratio, warning that a rollback would only enrich bank shareholders.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testified in the House Tuesday on the heels of yet another pointed social media post from President Donald Trump. But House Republicans largely avoided landing political blows against the central bank chair.

The Federal Reserve chair appears before the House Financial Services Committee for his first of two days of testimony on Capitol Hill this week, part of his biannual monetary policy report to Congress.