Policymaking

The Justice Department announced this month that it would seek to reduce duplicative penalties against banks, although more reforms are needed to rein in other agencies.

Banks were helped by better loan spreads thanks to higher net interest margins, but the recently enacted tax cut helped boost profits by 27% from a year earlier.

JPMorgan Chase’s Thasunda Duckett is living her ancestors’ wildest dreams; Morgan Stanley could take a lesson from Citi on reining in rainmakers; and Jelena McWilliams faces tough choices at the FDIC. Plus, babysitting gets approved as a new type of campaign expense.

Democratic Senator Kamala Harris on Thursday upped the pressure on the U.S. central bank to make its leadership more diverse, introducing legislation to compel the Federal Reserve's 12 regional banks to interview at least one woman and one minority candidate when they search for a new chief.

The lawmakers are calling on banks to follow the lead of Citigroup and Bank of America in limiting their business with firearms dealers in light of recent mass shootings.