Trump

The Senate allowed the nomination of a permanent director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to lapse, giving acting Director Russell Vought more time to lead the agency on a temporary basis.

The Federal Reserve will resume accepting pennies from banks and credit unions at all commercial coin distribution locations beginning Jan. 14. The central bank had ceased accepting pennies at some distribution centers late last year, but bankers praised Thursday's reversal.

Banking experts say World Liberty Trust's application for a trust charter with a regulatory body directed by the White House creates inherent conflicts of interest, while the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said the application will be considered on its merits.

World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture co-founded by President Trump, applied for a national trust charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The move comes as several prominent crypto companies have applied for and received conditional approval for trust charters since the beginning of the Trump administration.

Even as oil stocks jump and lawmakers clash over Trump's decision to intervene in Venezuela, experts say U.S. banks face little short-term risk, and any energy payoff is years away.

When Congress returns from its recess in 2026, a number of financial legislative issues will be teed up, including crypto market structure, deposit insurance and supervisory disputes.

Banks typically prefer to steer clear of politics. But in 2025, politics would not steer clear of banks

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will face an existential crisis in 2026 between the Trump administration's efforts to shut down the agency and the employee union and consumer advocates who want to stop them.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has made big changes in 2025, including cutting headcount, walking back Biden-era rules and guidance and resetting the agency's approach to  emerging technologies and crypto.

Democratic senators are attributing a recent decline in lending activity to a Trump administration regulation that puts new restrictions on borrowers with foreign ownership.