Politics

Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt plans to cut a surcharge on U.K. bank profits, effectively shielding them from the bulk of an increase in the country's corporate tax rate as the government tries to preserve the competitiveness of Britain's finance industry.

North Carolina Republican Pat McHenry, who's likely to be the next chair of the House Financial Services Committee, promised constituents that he would go after "woke corporations" in Washington.

Small-business owners need all the savings they can get, but the proposed legislation will ultimately cost consumers and entrepreneurs.

Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., who could be the next House Financial Services Committee chairman, handily won reelection, as did Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., of the Senate Banking Committee. But many consequential races are still too close to call.

The world's largest crypto trading platform, Binance, is bailing out its rival FTX in a buyout amid the smaller company's liquidity crisis.

Scams and fraud on real-time payment platforms are well documented. To solve the problem regulators, lawmakers and the public must acknowledge the inherent risks that come with a powerful new technology and develop rules to make it safer.

UBS Group's Frankfurt and Munich offices are being searched by prosecutors as part of a money laundering investigation linked to the sanctioned Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov, people familiar with the probe said. 

The Treasury and State departments have quietly urged banking giants including JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup to keep doing business with certain strategic Russian firms, according to people familiar with the situation. Some lawmakers have questioned whether these arrangements are sanctions loopholes.

"We're at the very beginning of that mission" to tighten policy enough to slow down the economy and push down inflation, says Bill Dudley, a former New York Fed president.

The president is responding to critics who say many of Democrats' key policies do not address core expenses for Americans.

The Federal Reserve's semiannual financial stability report said the threat of continued high prices and the Fed's response to them are top threats for banks and other market participants.

Facing calls for more transparency around its account-granting processes, the central bank has proposed making a public database of institutions with access to its services.

The U.K. parliament started an inquiry into nonfungible tokens, the digital collectibles for which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been a champion.

Bank-to-bank transactions that currently take two days could be settled in 10 seconds using central bank digital currencies and blockchain technology, the reserve bank finds.

The interest paid on consumer deposits has barely risen despite the Federal Reserve's aggressive rate hikes, writes Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., in letters to seven of the largest U.S. banks including JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo.

The potential for either chamber of Congress to turn over to Republicans and rising concern about inflation adds urgency to pass the Durbin-Marshall amendment on interchange fees, experts say.

Some 16 million applications for student debt relief will be approved by this week, provided the White House plan survives court challenges, President Biden said Thursday. 

A growing number of economists and lawmakers think the Fed has gone too far in its battle against inflation. Powell is worried it hasn't gone far enough.

U.S. Supreme Court justices questioned the legality of stiff penalties the federal government says it can impose on people who fail to file required reports listing their foreign bank accounts.

Crypto executives pulled back on political giving in the immediate run-up to the Nov. 8 midterm elections, a move that followed the crash in digital currencies like bitcoin and ether.