Politics

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said there was a "high degree of unity" among committee members during this week's Federal Open Market Committee vote. Out of 12 FOMC members, 11 voted for a 25 basis point cut.

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to lower interest rates, but questions about how big of a cut and the trajectory for future cuts remain uncertain — and the White House's power struggle with the central bank is a complicating factor.

A report from Democratic staff on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said accounting firm KPMG gave Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic clean audits despite internal warnings, fraud allegations and apparent risks of failure.

Market watchers expect the Federal Open Market Committee to announce a 25 basis point rate cut today, but are also watching for signals of more cuts to come and how many members push for a larger 50 basis point cut.

A bill on reciprocal deposits passed the committee unanimously, while another measure on custodial deposits passed by a wide, bipartisan margin.

A group of Democratic Senators led by Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., urged regulators to keep the 2023 Community Reinvestment Act overhaul, saying the rule was carefully crafted with bipartisan input.

The White House said it will appeal a circuit court ruling allowing Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook to remain on the central bank board while her lawsuit challenging her dismissal is litigated.

As President Trump calls for scrapping quarterly earnings reports and switching to a six-month schedule, industry observers wonder whether the time saved would be worth the potential loss of transparency.

The Department of Justice argued that Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook has not provided an explanation for her alleged primary residential claims on separate mortgage applications, but the motion made no mention of newly uncovered documentation that suggests Cook represented one of those mortgages as a vacation home in her application, undermining claims of fraud.

The perennial effort by state-level lawmakers and regulators to impose their will on national banks risks damaging a well-balanced system that has allowed the U.S. economy to thrive.