Politics

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has been so underfunded, for so long, that it has been forced to propose cuts to the vital Current Population Survey, which tracks the unemployment rate. Congress cannot allow that to happen.

Regulators have never held a hearing on whether to revoke the charter of a bank convicted of a money-laundering-related violation. As TD Bank nears a "global resolution" in connection with its compliance failures, it's unlikely to buck the trend.

In a letter to Acting Comptroller Michael Hsu, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren urged the regulator to curtail the megabank's growth in response to its failure to improve its risk management programs.

As political campaigns become more expensive and more complicated, meet the banks that have become the preferred financial institutions for the Republican and Democratic parties.

In their only vice presidential debate, Democratic nominee and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz talked about how housing should not be considered a "commodity," while Republican Sen. J.D. Vance tied housing shortages to illegal immigration and government regulation.

Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook called for weighing the costs and benefits of artificial intelligence, and flagged bias and fraud as areas of concern.

The Federal Reserve's apparent unwillingness to disclose volumetric details about banks' use of its proprietary faster payments network suggests the central bank is hiding something. That something could be the slow death of faster payments as the new normal.

Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell flagged a recent upward revision to income and savings data as a sign of economic strength. He said the information could factor into the central bank's monetary policy discourse during the Fed's next interest rate meeting in November.

Federal regulators have rewritten the rules for bank mergers in a way that will discourage the kinds of deals necessary to preserve healthy regional banks.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency issued guidance to ensure the Federal Home Loan banks are lending based on the credit worthiness of the member bank, not solely on the quality of the collateral.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed measures designed to bolster consumer protection rules. The bills target several issues that have also been percolating at the federal level.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., told the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve that they should more carefully oversee New York Community Bancorp, and consider official measures like raising capital ratios for the bank.

A Democratic-backed bill that represents the most sweeping response yet to the problem of gambling addiction would ban the use of credit cards in sports gambling.

Lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee touched on a number of issues overlapping with banking and the Securities and Exchange Commission, including SAB 121 and stablecoin legislation.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra's decision to withhold support of a reworked Basel III endgame capital proposal is logical as a way to gain leverage in this and future rule negotiations but may ultimately not amount to much.

Federal Reserve Gov. Michelle Bowman said a lack of banking experience among regulatory officials has led to unintended consequences. She flagged mergers, fintech partnerships and liquidity proposals as prime examples.

After cutting rates 50 basis points in September, the Federal Open Market Committee meets after Election Day to determine monetary policy. Gary Pzegeo, head of fixed income at CIBC Private Wealth U.S., provides his take on the latest move.

While other Washington regulators revise their approaches to merger reviews, the Federal Reserve has made no official change to its framework. The $35 billion merger could demonstrate just how differently the central bank is approaching the issue — if at all.

Some of the country's largest banks, including Bank of America, Citi and Morgan Stanley, said they support efforts to increase capacity, highlighting nuclear's role in the clean energy transition.

The new rules on custodial account records could address the issues that the Synapse bankruptcy caused in the fintech world but also could complicate relationships between banks and fintech partners, experts say.