Claire Williams

A group of Democratic lawmakers have written to federal regulators asking them to reconsider potential chilling effects on clean energy financing in the Basel III endgame proposal.

While much of the attention in next year's election is on the top of the ticket, there are several other important races in 2024 that banks need to keep on their radar.

Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and John Kennedy, R-La., have reintroduced their ILC bill that would subject companies that hold an ILC charter to similar oversight as traditional banks, while measures to cap interest rates and ban 'trigger leads' have also been introduced.

Led by Senate Banking Committee ranking member Tim Scott, R-S.C., GOP members of the Senate Banking Committee say they have concerns about Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Martin Gruenberg's leadership ability.

The fireworks that traditionally accompany big bank CEOs' appearances in Congress were absent Wednesday, but instead executives pushed their opposition to the Basel III capital rules and its impact on the economy. 

During a second day of comparatively mild questioning from lawmakers in semiannual oversight hearings, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra said artificial intelligence could exacerbate existing weaknesses in the financial system without tighter protections.

The financial services industry has run TV ads during football games and organized lobbying visits by small-business owners in its fight against the Basel III endgame plan to raise capital requirements for larger lenders. The tactics are beginning to show signs of working.

Three GOP leaders of the House Financial Services Committee, including Chairman Patrick McHenry, say they'll explore possible connections between the agency's alleged "toxic" work culture and its staffing shortages that may have contributed to this year's banking crisis.

Senate Banking Committee ranking member Tim Scott, R-S.C., released one of his first major public  bank policy pushes in months after formally suspending his presidential campaign.

Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., a senior Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, said he intends to press Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to refine the Basel III capital proposal before it is finalized.

At a Senate Banking subcommittee meeting, Republican and Democratic lawmakers both promoted the mission of community development financial institutions and warned of upcoming threats to their funding and proposals to revamp the CDFI certification process.

Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy, continued to say that the Basel III rulemaking might have violated the Administrative Procedures Act

The special assessment to refill the Deposit Insurance Fund should be based on uninsured deposits after the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank, House Republicans said.

Voters so far are lukewarm on the president's efforts to change the narrative around his handling of the economy, but the administration's bid to win the economic messaging war could cause Washington to come down more harshly on banks.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., in a letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, challenged the idea that credit card late fees serve as a deterrent to delinquency, instead saying issuers told her office that some of them earn tens of millions of dollars collecting late fees.

Philip Jefferson, a current Federal Reserve Board member, is President Biden's nominee to be vice chairman of the central bank. At a Senate hearing, he gave measured responses to questions about the potential for heightened regulation of midsize banks.

House Republicans will likely need to gain support from Democrats to get the debt limit deal through a critical vote in the House Wednesday evening.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike pilloried former Silicon Valley Bank CEO Greg Becker over his compensation package.

First Republic Bank was shuttered by regulators early Monday, and all its deposits and most of its assets were acquired by JPMorgan. San Francisco-based First Republic was undone by low-rate mortgages it made to its wealthy customers as well as by the fallout from last month's banking crisis.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said in a report released Friday that Signature's rapid, unrestrained growth and inadequate risk management practices outpaced supervisors' ratings and responses, even though the issues were known to the agency.