Politics

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Thursday said the bank asset thresholds that trigger enhanced prudential standards like stress testing and additional capital requirements require a recalibration to account for inflation.

A new interagency guidance clarifies when banks must report suspicious activity, easing compliance workloads and narrowing the reporting requirements to focus on higher-value cases.

Top Democratic lawmakers are asking the full appeals court to hear a case about the Trump administration's efforts to fire employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The Senate confirmed former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board member Jonathan McKernan to serve as Treasury's under secretary for domestic finance on a party-line vote, installing a key industry ally in the Treasury Department.

House Financial Services Committee ranking member Maxine Waters, D-Calif., asked bank regulators to give banks the supervisory clearance to extend lines of credit and modify loan terms for federal employees furloughed after the government shut down last week.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. approved proposals Tuesday that would define "unsafe or unsound practices" and ban the use of "reputation risk" in supervisory exams.

Legal experts say the Supreme Court's decision not to immediately rule on a request to remove Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook from office suggests that, whatever the court's views on independent agencies may be, it views the central bank differently.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Monday said it will scrap fair housing reporting requirements, fast-track licensing for small banks and simplify regulation for smaller institutions overall.

Frank Bisignano, the former chairman and CEO of Fiserv, will become the "CEO" of the IRS, a newly created role, in addition to his post running the Social Security Administration.

Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould says he wants to crack down on big banks caught cutting ties with controversial, if lawful, individuals and businesses, as required by President Trump's debanking initiative.

As the likelihood of conflict in the Taiwan Strait grows, banks ought to be beefing up their sanctions compliance teams to deal with a huge increase in activity. Unfortunately, they are doing exactly the opposite.

Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip Jefferson said Friday that the economic outlook is uncertain and that he was adopting a cautious approach to gauging whether slowing growth and a softening labor market outweigh inflation pressures from tariffs.

The ongoing government shutdown prevented the Bureau of Labor Statistics from releasing its September jobs report Friday, but job growth appears to be softening. The lack of reliable government data comes as the Federal Reserve mulls further interest rate cuts. 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will delay its small-business lending data rule by a year, citing litigation and plans to rewrite the regulation in the interim as reasons for the delay.

Banks are scouring consumer complaints, bank accounts and loan denials to identify people and companies who they may have cut off from banking services amid a new push by the Trump administration to address allegations of political bias in debanking.

Department officials pushed back on criticism that a banner on its homepage violated a statute meant to curb partisanship in government operations.

The first government shutdown since 2019 will slow flood insurance originations and new Small Business Administration loans, though self-funded banking regulators will continue operating as usual.

The Supreme Court said Wednesday that it would defer President Donald Trump's request for a stay until after oral arguments scheduled for January 2026, allowing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook to remain on the board at least until then.

The shutdown started with a flight into treasury bonds, putting downward pressure on financing costs, but several other developments slowed mortgage activity.

Hill, who has been serving as acting chair since January, has steered the agency toward deregulation and away from Biden-era priorities, with strong backing from big banks.