Politics

Lawmakers questioned Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on concerns including bank consolidation, the systemic risk exception and the need for regulation of cryptocurrency during Tuesday's House Financial Services Committee hearing. During the hearing lawmakers highlighted gaps they see in post 2008 financial regulations at a time when they say big banks wield growing influence on the system.

House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., said that two new bills would make the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network more accountable to the public as it moves toward implementing its beneficial ownership reporting requirement rule.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Vice Chair Travis Hill said Silicon Valley Bank's failure raises concerns over the resolution process, and said regulators should work harder to find a buyer for distressed banks in the future. 

House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., has posted a discussion draft of stablecoin legislation that includes some concessions to committee Democrats.

Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu said customers' trust in banking relationships is critical to the financial system as the agency seeks comment on what a survey of trust and banking should look like.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra faces tough questions next week testifying before the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee.

Led by House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., Republican lawmakers asked the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to develop a plan to make sure small businesses can come into compliance with its new beneficial ownership rule.

Federal bank regulators issued proposed guidelines for banks and other mortgage lenders to craft policies around reconsideration of value requests. The move is the latest aimed at rooting out bias in home appraisals.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has reintroduced a plan to reduce merchants' credit card acceptance costs, with more backing from bipartisan lawmakers.

The Federal Reserve has taken heat in recent years for its forays into climate stress testing, but the effects of climate change on the broader economy are getting harder to ignore.

The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy debated bills that would lower some banks' regulation and allow banks to pay some Deposit Insurance Fund assessments with Treasuries.

The actual bump in capital requirements, which may be proposed this month, will vary based on the range of banks that will be affected by the changes to key capital rules.

For banks already dealing with higher funding costs, renewed competition from government-backed securities could bring more pain.

The state's law does not cap rates at the level preferred by consumer advocates, but it does limit the availability of payday loans that carry annual percentage rates between 36% and 50%.

Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee and the House Agriculture Committee released a discussion draft of a bill that could classify many cryptocurrencies as commodities rather than securities.

Americans are going to invest in crypto no matter what politicians and regulators think. So, it would be better to keep crypto exchanges in the U.S., and under SEC supervision, than to drive them overseas.

Six regulatory agencies are seeking public comment on a proposed rule that would establish best practices for using automated valuation models to assess collateral.

The banking crisis set in motion by the failure of three banks has the industry focusing once more on how to avoid the same scenario.

The Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania-based financial institution, from 2017 to 2021, did not sufficiently serve the credit needs of majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in and around Philadelphia, the DOJ alleges.

Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, and other Republicans have signed on to a bill that would bolster the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s ability to claw back the compensation of the executives of failed banks.