At its inaugural hearing, the committee appointed by lawmakers to oversee CARES Act implementation pressed for answers about why the Main Street Lending Program is off to such a slow start.
Whoever wins the White House in November may have immediate agency openings to fill, while a key decision looms about who will run the Federal Reserve after Jerome Powell’s term expires in 2022.
Just eight loans had been made as of late July, six of them through a single community bank in Florida, according to new data on the federal rescue program for small and midsize companies hurt by the pandemic.
The Federal Reserve Racial and Economic Equity Act would direct the Fed to consider racial inequality in employment, income and access to affordable credit when making monetary policy and in its regulation and supervision of banks.
The measure would release $2 million in funding for the U.S. Postal Service to launch pilot programs to provide basic services such as checking accounts and bill payment.
The online installment lender could be worth as much as $10 billion; the GSEs' net income jumped sharply from the first quarter after the rebound in the housing market.
