Lalita Clozel

Banking agencies moved to ease a postcrisis rule that could free up nearly $40 billion for big global banks, the latest regulatory victory for Wall Street.

Joseph Otting, comptroller of the U.S. currency, is trumpeting his agency’s oversight as a good business proposition.

A year after U.S. authorities closed Backpage.com, the biggest player in the online sex-for-sale industry, investigators are focused on three websites now dominant in the American market and the Swiss businessman who they believe may control them.

The U.S. Air Force said the service was reviewing its travel-spending policies after an aircrew’s March stay at a Trump golf resort in Scotland intensified scrutiny over public funds being spent in hotels and resorts tied to the president.

Some lenders want to get back into the business of offering short-term, small-dollar loans to cash-strapped customers but are wary of running afoul of regulators.

The Federal Reserve is thinking about activating a dormant tool to combat credit crunches in a downturn as part of a broader overhaul.

Credit unions are buying small banks in record numbers, a trend that is prompting pushback from the banking industry.

A type of unconventional mortgage that focuses on a borrower’s assets to vet repayment ability has drawn a warning from regulators for banks to maintain tight underwriting standards.

Banks plan to be more active in the 2020 elections, with a large industry group promising to boost campaign spending and political advertising after keeping a relatively low profile in the decade after the financial crisis.

Banks are on the verge of getting some relief from Volcker-rule limits on speculative trading, one of the industry’s priorities in amending the regulations put in place after the financial crisis.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is moving to roll back an Obama-era policy aimed at rooting out racial bias in housing, the latest move by the Trump administration to weaken a legal tool combating unintentional discrimination.

A Trump-appointed bank regulator is touring the country trying to sell his plans to modify lower-income lending requirements and overcome resistance from other regulators, banks and community advocates.

An update of the Volcker rule expected next week will deliver a victory to large banks that have fought regulators’ efforts to clarify trading definitions, said people familiar with the matter.

Federal Reserve officials are weighing whether to use a tool known as the countercyclical capital buffer, which could reduce the risk of a credit crunch in a downturn.

Kellyanne Conway said President Trump is actively pursuing an expansion of background checks for gun buyers in the wake of mass shootings, as Democratic presidential candidates renewed calls over the weekend for bolder action to address gun violence.

The Federal Reserve plans to develop a faster payments system for banks to exchange money, providing a public option to another real-time network built by big banks.

Big banks are fighting a likely U.S. government effort to speed up how money moves through its payments system, arguing this could derail their private network.

Japanese online merchant Rakuten Inc. wants to open a bank in Utah to offer loans, credit cards and other financial services to customers of its existing U.S. cashback-shopping business.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau banned two debt collectors and fined them more than $60 million, extending a crackdown on abusive practices in a heavily scrutinized segment of the financial industry.

The regulator proposed easing a hurdle for banks to sell pools of home-mortgage obligations, as part of an effort to spur competition in a market dominated by government-backed entities such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

U.S. securities regulators are examining whether Facebook’s planned cryptocurrency should fall under their oversight, a development that could further complicate the project.

A top Federal Reserve official said his agency’s tests of whether big banks can withstand a future economic shock need to be more predictable and easier for firms to pass.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said stress tests of the nation’s largest banks must adapt and keep firms on their toes, or the annual exam could fail to prepare the financial system for the next downturn.

The Fed cleared the biggest banks to increase shareholder payouts, another sign the industry has grown fit enough to handle a severe economic shock.

The biggest banks in the U.S. have enough reserves to continue lending in a severe economic downturn, the Federal Reserve said in its annual review of large financial firms.

Banks could have an easier time with their annual stress tests. Here’s what to look for in the results being released Friday and next Thursday.

Lawmakers in the House advanced a bipartisan plan to overhaul the federal flood-insurance program, which has struggled to keep pace with record disaster payouts in recent years.

The Senate confirmed Heath Tarbert as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, making him the second Trump-appointed official to lead the top derivatives regulator.

Banks reported a record increase in sour credit-card debt in the first quarter and a surge in past due commercial and industrial loans.

While economic security improved “marginally,” many U.S. citizens were still in a position of “financial fragility,” Federal Reserve governor Lael Brainard said of findings in a survey the central bank is expected to release later this month.

The biggest U.S. banks are ramping up efforts to secure a regulatory reprieve they believe will give them access to a nearly $40 billion pot of money tied up by restrictions.

The Trump administration moved ahead to allow an additional 30,000 seasonal workers to return to the U.S. this summer, a higher-than-expected number.

An additional 30,000 seasonal workers could be allowed into the U.S. this summer, a higher-than-expected number, as White House officials have a tug of war over rules for legal immigrant workers.

The Trump administration has retained private consultants to estimate potential losses in the U.S. government’s $1.45 trillion student-loan portfolio and is weighing selling all or portions of the debt to private investors.

The Federal Reserve moved to make it easier for private-equity funds and other investors to own large stakes in banks without triggering its oversight, in a plan that could also make it easier for financial technology startups to obtain investment cash.

Over the past decade, hundreds of people with criminal records have asked the government to let them work at a bank—with more than 40% of requests rejected or unresolved. The banking industry wants to change that.

House Democrats have subpoenaed nine large banks as part of an inquiry into President Trump’s financial interests and possible Russian money laundering, according to people familiar with the matter, including six U.S. firms and three foreign lenders.

The Trump administration has opened the door for Congress to more easily overturn financial rules issued as guidance rather than in a formal rule-making process, a win for the industry.

The chief executives at seven of the largest U.S. banks faced adversarial questioning from House Democrats on Wednesday, as lawmakers evaluated changes in the industry since the financial crisis.

The chief executives of the largest U.S. banks plan to tell Congress on Wednesday that the financial system is less risky and more tightly supervised than it was before the 2008 crisis thanks to a series of regulatory reforms.

Federal regulators on Monday proposed easing a rule that required big banks to annually plan for their own demise, the latest move by regulators under President Trump to loosen controls put in place after the financial crisis.

President Trump directed his administration to begin drafting plans to overhaul Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to reduce the government’s footprint in housing finance.

The Trump administration plans to overhaul government-subsidized flood insurance, in a sweeping proposal that could raise rates on more expensive properties and those in higher-risk areas.

Employers who rely on seasonal foreign-worker permits are renewing their fight to lift limits on temporary H-2B visas, saying computer problems this year that thwarted many applications highlighted the need to raise the cap.

The new tax law drove double-digit profit growth at U.S. banks last year, a federal regulator said Thursday, boosting the industry’s profits, which would have hit a record even without the tax changes.

Bank mergers are getting speedier under the Trump administration, with federal regulators changing policies that had deterred deals after the financial crisis. The stance has raised concerns that regulators aren’t scrutinizing mergers closely enough.

Federal Reserve governor Michelle Bowman, in her first speech since joining the central bank, said supervision of small banks should fit their size and less-complex risk profile.

The Trump administration unveiled a proposal to remove a requirement that would have made it difficult for companies to offer high-cost consumer loans.

The Federal Reserve said that its stress test for big banks will imagine a rapid increase in unemployment, as it announced the details of the hypothetical scenario banks must survive to pass the latest round of the exams.