Interest rates

The Pittsburgh company's finance chief expects more gains in interest income, though he conceded rising deposit costs could curb the pace of advances.

During a visit to Buffalo on Friday, New York Federal Reserve President John Williams said the central bank may need to keep cranking up interest rates to gain greater control over high inflation.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell brushed off concerns that rapidly tightening monetary policy could disrupt the financial system. Some economists and policy experts beg to differ, raising concerns about loan defaults or even the collapse of a key institution or counterparty.

Wells Fargo, U.S. Bancorp, Truist Financial and PNC Financial were among the banks that said they are raising their prime lending rates from 4.0% to 4.75%.

The Federal Reserve’s forceful moves to fight inflation are resetting expectations about how quickly banks will need to start raising their deposit rates.

In a recent survey, just over half of community bankers expressed concern that the central bank will harm the U.S. economy by raising rates too fast in its quest to contain inflation.

U.S. central bankers should move expeditiously and raise interest rates to neutral — the level which neither speeds up or slows down the economy — by the end of the year, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly said.

The Federal Reserve’s most hawkish official cracked open the door to discussing the first 75-basis-point interest rate hike since 1994, a move economists say would be a last resort in case inflation further spirals out of control.

The Federal Reserve may need to raise interest rates “significantly” higher than it currently expects to cool an overheated U.S. economy, Goldman Sachs Chief Economist Jan Hatzius said.

Esther George, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, says changes in the office sector and monetary policy pose potential risks to property owners and their lenders.