Politics

The former head of the agency said a decision last year to suspend caps on investor loans has further induced demand in an already hot market. Other experts say a supply-demand imbalance is the true driving force.

The product of bipartisan negotiations reviewed by American Banker gives nonbanks the all-clear to issue stablecoins, but keeps the licensing powers with the Federal Reserve and bars algorithmic stablecoins for two years.

The Biden administration has selected Travis Hill, formerly Jelena McWilliams' policy chief, for the No. 2 spot on the board of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Wells Fargo remains committed to turning itself around following a series of scandals that have plagued the bank since the middle of the last decade, but it will take "several years of work" to satisfy U.S. regulators, Chief Executive Charlie Scharf said.

The Biden administration is officially neutral on the idea of a digital dollar, but a Treasury report released last week lauds potential "significant benefits" of a central bank digital currency.

Isbank, Turkey's largest bank by assets, stopped using a payment system popular among Russian tourists, following a warning by the U.S.

In the coming midterm elections, bankers ought to pay attention to candidates for state treasurer, controller and other historically low-profile offices.

The upstate New York bank took criticism last year over layoffs tied to its acquisition of People's United Financial. Connecticut's attorney general now has additional questions about both the job cuts and problems with a recent systems conversion.

A Texas city declined to award a bond deal this week to Citigroup even though the bank submitted the most competitive bid, showing how Wall Street is still contending with a Republican-backed state law that punishes financial firms for taking on gun policies.

The Minneapolis bank extended its purchase agreement until the end of 2022, six months after the deal's original targeted closing date. Large-bank acquisitions have been drawing closer regulatory scrutiny during the Biden administration.

President Biden called on the SEC, CFPB and other agencies to vigorously use their enforcement powers to combat consumer scams and financial crimes involving cryptocurrencies; issue rules that address emerging risks tied to digital assets; share data on consumer complaints; and promote a modernized payment system.

"The SEC may not want to answer to Congress on its climate disclosure rule, but ultimately, the SEC will have to answer to the courts — which should make it nervous," the Senate Banking Committee's Pat Toomey warned the agency's chairman, Gary Gensler.

Many leading bank trade associations have called industrial loan companies a regulatory "loophole" that must be closed, but a bipartisan group of senators has their back.

The agency's invitations to "Come in and talk" often precede investigations and subpoenas.

Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, called for rules to protect buy now/pay later and earned wage access users and harshly criticized training repayment agreements. But Sen Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and industry advocates defended financial innovation.

An appeals court ruled that the electronic delivery of private information that was not made public did not constitute real harm to the consumer.

The International Standards Organization's approval of a new merchant category code for gun and ammunition sales paves the way for credit card networks to begin flagging suspicious weapons sales to law enforcement agencies.

The European Central Bank is intensifying discussions with bank executives over their readiness for a potential surge in company defaults and a drying up of energy market liquidity amid a worsening standoff over Russian gas supplies.

In an exclusive interview, the moderate Virginia Democrat and co-chair of the Community Development Financial Institution Caucus touched on the future of community development, cybersecurity and nonbank regulation. 

Republican Sen. Pat Toomey criticized the degree of "opacity" surrounding some community benefit agreements, or written deals between banks and community groups ahead of a merger that often involve billions of dollars of commitments.