Sen. Elizabeth Warren told Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in a Senate banking committee hearing that she will not support his renomination. "Over and over, you have acted to make our banking system less safe, and that makes you a dangerous man to head up the Fed," Warren told Powell.
Bank merger and acquisition activity is on track to reach its highest yearly level since the 2008 financial crisis, during which many lenders were forced into deals to stay operational. More than $54 billion worth of bank M&A deals have been announced so far this year, according to Dealogic, up from $17 billion last year.
Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard said the Fed is lagging behind other central banks in upping scrutiny of climate risk considerations in bank supervision. "The US has been behind and we need to catch up ... The nature of climate change is such that ... it could pose significant risks both in terms of sudden changes in asset prices but also change the financial system generally," Brainard said.
Wells Fargo has agreed to pay $37.3 million -- $35.3 million in fines and a $2 million forfeiture -- to settle charges by the Department of Justice that it overcharged corporate clients for foreign exchange services between 2010 and 2017. The fraudulent activity affected 771 business clients, including many small- and medium-sized companies, according to the DOJ.
Truist is taking a new approach to integrating and upgrading digital technology since its formation from the merger of SunTrust and BB&T banks, such as building new channels for mobile and online banking. Truist is also embracing a "hybrid cloud" structure and created a data utility process that it calls a "digital straddle." "Ours is probably the first and largest merger in what I would call the digital era in banking, and that forced us to think about challenges like this," said Chief Information Officer Scott Case.
The Huobi Global cryptocurrency exchange has stopped registering new users in China and said it will close all accounts by year end, while Binance said it is blocking account registrations from Chinese cell phone numbers. The moves come after the Chinese government said it is outlawing all crypto-related transactions.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has reported to Congress that small businesses are calling for regulatory clarification on digital assets. The SEC says Congress needs to "clarify the status of digital assets to make clear when it is a security."
Coinbase plans to allow users to put all or a portion of their paychecks into their accounts via direct deposit. The money can then be immediately transferred into cryptocurrency with no fees.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's ability to more aggressively police cryptocurrency companies could be limited as policymakers still struggle to define digital assets. "Consumer protection actually is the heart of the matter ... but there are jurisdictional questions about what [crypto] products actually fall in and out of [the CFPB's] purview," said former CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger, who now works for crypto firm Solidus Labs.
Research by Vincent Deluard, global macro strategist at brokerage StoneX, claims the trillions of dollars of passive investment inflows in recent years have effectively prevented the stock market from turning bearish. This has led to ever-rising stock valuations that bear little relation to fundamentals, says Deluard.