SIFIs

The head of the international Basel Committee on Banking Supervision underscored the importance of international consistency in banking standards in comments Wednesday before the European Parliament.

A top Wells Fargo executive and a former employee painted very different pictures of the culture and oversight at the San Francisco bank during a hearing by a California Assembly committee on Tuesday that probed the opening of 2 million phony accounts.

The regulations added in the wake of the financial crisis have made the system safer, but it's time to pause on new rules and find ways to improve what's been put in place already, according to the top executives at some of the largest banks.

WASHINGTON — The Basel Committee will move forward with its final regulatory capital rules by yearend despite threats from the European Union that its members may choose to ignore the standards out of fear that they might stifle growth.

Current proposals about what to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that still focus on a government-backed solution are misdirected.

As the financial world comes to grips with the news that the European Union has no intention of implementing the final elements of Basel III, observers are scrambling to figure out how much impact the split could have on U.S. banks and global financial stability.

Fourteen senators including Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., sent a letter Wednesday to Attorney General Loretta Lynch calling for the Justice Department to investigate possible criminal wrongdoing by senior executives at Wells Fargo.

In a stunning move, the European Union signaled that it will not follow the Basel Committee's recommendations on standardized credit, operational and market risk rules, citing concerns that the direction of the proposals would unduly increase capital requirements and stifle economic growth.

Last week's Senate hearing was bad for Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf, but Thursday's House appearance was even worse. Lawmakers moved beyond calling for Stumpf to resign, and said Wells Fargo should be broken up and Stumpf should go to jail.

Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen testified for the second consecutive year on regulatory issues, touching on the Fed's stress tests, banks' ownership of commodities, the fate of Wells Fargo and whether the central bank acts in a political fashion.

WASHINGTON — Members of the Senate Banking Committee introduced legislation Wednesday that would make municipal debt securities more attractive to banks.

Since John Stumpf's appearance before the Senate Banking Committee last week, the situation has become even worse for the Wells Fargo CEO, with new lawsuits filed, the Labor Department opening an investigation and the CFTC fining it for an unrelated action. Here's what to expect when Stumpf appears in the House on Thursday.

The bad-news stories about the largest institutions are worrisome in light of housing finance proposals that could benefit the big banks even more.

Federal Reserve Gov. Daniel Tarullo laid out a sweeping vision of the future of the central bank's hallmark supervisory stress testing program — a vision that involves major concessions to midsize regionals and puts added pressure of the largest and most systemically risky banks.

In a speech Monday, Federal Reserve Gov. Daniel Tarullo outlined sweeping changes to the Fed's hallmark supervisory program, including bank-specific — but substantially higher — capital minimums and dropping a qualitative grade for all but the largest and most complex banks.

In an announcement Friday afternoon, Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Patrick Harker said his regional bank is launching an "Agenda on Poverty and Prosperity" to provide research and recommendations to Fed leaders on the interaction between poverty and economic growth.

WASHINGTON — Democratic Senators sent a letter Thursday to the Department of Labor requesting an investigation into possible labor violations at Wells Fargo related to unpaid overtime and other abuses that came to light after articles by the Los Angeles Times and a regulatory settlement announced two weeks ago.

Other investigations related to Wells Fargo may prevent the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from sharing confidential information with House investigators, Director Richard Cordray said Thursday.

Republican lawmakers are pushing back against claims by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's allies that it rooted out fraud at Wells Fargo, arguing the L.A. City Attorney and the Los Angeles Times brought the situation to light.

Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen today pushed back against the notion that banks might be "too big to manage", saying that despite concerns raised by the recent scandal at Wells Fargo, there is no inherent reason why large banks cannot meet existing standards of conduct.