Politics

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said there have been "no decisions" on the controversial capital reform plan, but banks and others who have criticized the proposal are eager for an indication about what's next.

An independent examination of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. workplace culture revealed an atmosphere of sexual harassment, discrimination and misconduct at the agency and raised the need for significant reforms.

The full House is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a Congressional Review Act resolution that would overturn a staff accounting bulletin from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Banks argue that the guidance would effectively cut them out of the crypto custody business.

Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., is introducing a bill to establish an Office of Supervisory Appeals at each of the banking regulators that would give banks more power over the appeals process.

In a surprise move, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Housing Finance Agency proposed a long-awaited rule to curb certain incentive-based pay arrangements for bank executives.

The Drug Enforcement Administration's early moves to reschedule cannabis could spur some banks to get interested in the market, but experts say without a legislative fix, the fundamental risks to taking on cannabis clients will remain.

Big national retailers will capture all the financial benefits from proposed reductions in swipe fees, while consumers will be left with fewer benefits programs and less secure transactions.

On both sides of the Atlantic, regulators have failed to live up to their promises about how they would approach bank failures. Until they do, the industry operates in legal limbo.

During this week's Federal Open Market Committee meeting, officials voted to lower the cap on the amount of Treasury securities that can roll off the central bank's books each month from $60 billion to $25 billion.

House Republicans held a subcommittee hearing on reforming bank merger M&A, laying the groundwork to counter Biden administration efforts to make it more difficult for mergers to be approved.

Top Federal Home Loan bank officials said they fear the Federal Housing Finance Agency will use supervision to further the goals of last year's report recommending reforms to the Home Loan Bank System.

A 50% growth in losses from check fraud last year is pushing bankers in Illinois to ask regulators for a joint supervisory guidance and tougher enforcement of large banks' "know your customer" compliance.

The failure of Republic First isn't a systemic threat or even a surprise. But the conditions that led to its failure are not all that unique and may foreshadow a secular rise in bank consolidation — one that policymakers can either embrace or resist.

Rep. French Hill, the No. 2 Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, promised bankers Tuesday that he will continue to push back against Biden administration regulators, especially on bank-fintech partnerships and digital assets.

Banks and other financial market participants have been keyed into the central bank's communications around monetary policy expectations. But in an unpredictable economy, the guidance doesn't always hit the mark.

The Wyoming-based digital asset bank filed paperwork to challenge last month's district court ruling, which affirmed the Federal Reserve's view about its discretion over master account applications.

The former head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau resigned Friday after the troubled rollout of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid led some House Republicans to call for his resignation.

The FDIC board debated and ultimately withdrew two separate proposals to address asset managers' control over banks, but acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu said he couldn't support either and called for more research and debate about how asset managers' control over banks impacts safety and soundness.

The state's comptroller of public accounts is one of several notable non-depositories with access to the Fed's payments system, along with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Tennessee Valley Authority. So why do they have accounts while some neobanks don't? 

Recent economic data have shown inflation stubbornly above the Fed's 2% target, putting rate cuts in jeopardy. Lauren Saidel-Baker, an economist with ITR Economics, parses the FOMC meeting, Chair Powell's press conference and takes a look at future policy.