Politics

The Federal Reserve Board governor also said the central bank needs to make operational improvements to its last resort lending facility.

A federal judge in Texas sided with bank trade groups, agreeing that bank regulators might have overstepped their authority in reforming parts of the Community Reinvestment Act.

Harmonizing standards for liquidity coverage ratios and discount window pledges could prevent the type of strains that led to last year's bank failures, according to a new paper whose authors include former Federal Reserve Govs. Dan Tarullo and Jeremy Stein.

The Federal Reserve's vice chair for supervision says the board is discussing ways to address the various concerns banks have raised about the capital reform proposal.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said at the Federal Open Market Committee press conference Wednesday that a slower pace of reduction could help the central bank avoid shrinking its holdings further without disrupting the banking system.

While some said the agency was ignorant of its own rules, one trade group praised the goals of the posting.

Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., sent separate letters to banking regulators on the anniversary of the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, with Hagerty questioning the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s sale of Signature Bank's assets and Warren urging the regulators to tighten capital and liquidity requirements.

The head of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under the Biden Administration said she will transition from public life starting March 22.

Regulatory reform – rather than Biden's proposed solutions – is needed to fix the inventory crisis, some say, but others applauded the president's buyer cost-cutting initiatives.

During a contentious exchange on his second day of congressional testimony this week, the Federal Reserve chair drew a line between the central bank's response to last year's bank failures and its current capital proposal.

In congressional testimony, the Federal Reserve chair said the Board of Governors is processing the comments on its capital reform proposal. Putting forth an entirely new proposal is "very plausible."

The letter, which was sent to bank regulators, represents a further escalation of lawmaker criticism of the Basel III endgame proposal, and comes just as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is set to testify in the House Financial Services Committee.

Rep. Maxine Waters, ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, led the letter, spurred by the recent merger announcement between Capital One and Discover, which the letter said would enable the merged company "to influence multiple points of the marketplace."

Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr said in a speech Tuesday that banks might need to establish margin to counteract counterparty risks presented by private funds.

The lawmakers, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said the deal would further anti-consumer bank consolidation, but also criticized the OCC's proposed changes to the merger process, asking that they be strengthened.

The blockbuster merger proposal will be reviewed at a time when the Biden administration is expressing skepticism about consolidation. Its analysis will have to account for markets dominated by both big banks and the likes of Visa and Mastercard.

A clash over pay playing out in contract negotiations between the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and its employee union occur as the Supreme Court is considering whether the agency must get its funding from Congress.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell suggested that a rate cut is coming, but cast doubt about whether the central bank would see enough data suggesting inflation is sufficiently tamed for interest rates to come down at their next meeting.

Bank regulators Friday said the existing laws governing safety and soundness and fair lending are adequate to address risks posed by artificial intelligence, noting that while AI may be used to inform lending decisions, banks are ultimately responsible for compliance.

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.