Politics

Oklahoma lawmakers are having second thoughts about legislation blacklisting financial firms for their restrictions on lending to oil, gas and coal companies,

The Federal Reserve's Office of the Inspector General says the Fed has yet to fulfill 65 recommendations, and also identified 18 outstanding issues at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

According to the Federal Reserve Board's latest financial stability report, persistent inflation and policy uncertainty are the primary worries for banks. Survey respondents expressed heightened anxiety over murky policy outlooks due to geopolitical turmoil and rapidly approaching domestic elections.

McCargo stabilized the agency at a crucial time as she helped navigate it through both a pandemic and subsequent dramatic interest-rate cycle change.

For the better part of the past decade, the Federal Reserve Board in Washington has played a more active role in presidential searches by regional reserve banks. The shift seems to have made the system more diverse, but some argue it's at the expense of regional bank independence.

The House Financial Services Committee also sent to the full House two bipartisan bills, including one that would prevent large banks from opting out of having to recognize Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income in regulatory capital.

Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman said she believes there is a feasible path forward for the revised capital reform proposal, emphasizing the importance of making broad changes informed by industry feedback to achieve broad consensus among Federal Reserve board members.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created to protect the people from financial predation. But there are very different interpretations of what that means, and whether the people should be protected by — or from — the government.

The CFPB has dissolved the Office of Supervision, Enforcement and Fair Lending and eliminated the job of associate director in a move that impacts how it designates nonbanks for supervision.

Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., told American Banker that he sees a concrete path to chair the House Financial Services Committee that relies on his long experience in committee leadership and long political career.

Custodia Bank CEO Caitlin Long discusses how her firm is navigating the hostile regulator landscape for crypto banking and a lawsuit against the Federal Reserve.

The Federal Reserve chair's comments coincide with the spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group in Washington. They also come as groups like the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision are being scrutinized.

The Federal Home Loan Bank System stepped up advances by 37% or more to Silicon Valley, Signature and First Republic banks ahead of their failures, the GAO says in a post-mortem on last year's banking crisis. The findings add to the debate about whether the system should be a lender of last resort.

Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., is running to lead his caucus in the House Financial Services Committee and says he has the skills to meld traditional and insurgent wings of the party.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chair Martin Gruenberg said last week that regulators have the tools they need to allow big banks to fail in an orderly fashion. But resetting public and market expectations is not so easy.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., detailed how New York Community Bancorp grew to exceed the $100 billion threshold that triggers tougher regulatory requirements and set the bank on a path to market turmoil via a series of deals that were approved, in part, by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

The Arkansas Republican is currently the vice chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and has a deep background in the banking industry and policy.

Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Mass., and Sheldon Whitehouse, R.I., decried the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's suit against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's credit card late fee rule, saying the suit is an example of the kinds of frivolous litigation it opposes elsewhere.

Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., and Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that pursuing a rulemaking on forced arbitration, as laid out by consumer advocates' rulemaking petition, would be an "affront to Congress."

A regulatory proposal to raise bank capital has spurred banks to fight back with a populist appeal to consumers, while regulators say more capital is what's needed to save banks from more crises — and help consumers.