News Topic: Policymaking

Eric Blankenstein, now at HUD, is under fire for asking a subordinate to defend him after it was revealed he wrote racially charged blogs 14 years earlier. ... Read full article

A group of senators on the Banking Committee sent a letter to the central bank chairman grilling him on the agency's efforts to develop a real-time payments system. ... Read full article

The Democratic presidential candidate argued in a blog post that the U.S. could avoid a recession by canceling most student debt and authorizing regulators to more aggressively monitor leveraged lending. ... Read full article

The agreement with authorities including the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general — and possibly the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — may be announced as soon as Monday. ... Read full article

The Treasury secretary said the U.S. government has significant concerns about digital currencies, including their potential as tools for money launderers. ... Read full article

David Marcus, who oversees Facebook’s digital wallet, plans to tell Congress that the company will roll out Libra only after it has "received appropriate approvals.” ... Read full article

Lawmakers circulated a bill just ahead of hearings on Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency that would prohibit companies with over $25 billion in annual revenue from launching a digital financial asset. ... Read full article

The Alternative Reference Rates Committee promotes the adoption of a new Secured Overnight Financing Rate index rate to replace Libor in pricing hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages within the next two years. The change would be the first application of SOFR ... Read full article

A recent high court decision said judges no longer have to automatically give agencies the benefit of the doubt when interpreting their regulations. ... Read full article

Christopher Waller is a conventional choice drawn from within the Fed’s own ranks. Judy Shelton has spent decades outside mainstream economics. But both are expected to echo the president’s call for lowering interest rates. ... Read full article

A group of Senate Democrats have called on HUD Secretary Ben Carson to reverse his agency’s opinion that borrowers in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program are ineligible for FHA loans. ... Read full article

The president signed an executive order Tuesday establishing a White House council dedicated to examining regulatory barriers to affordable housing. ... Read full article

The House passed a spending bill amendment aimed at providing further clarity to banks looking to provide services to cannabis businesses. ... Read full article

Senators will examine the social media giant’s plan to offer a digital currency. House Financial Services Committee leaders have already criticized the idea. ... Read full article

Lawmakers recently introduced legislation to delay implementation of a new accounting standard for current expected loan losses. But policymakers should seek to preserve the accounting body’s independence. ... Read full article

Public-sector development of a speedier settlement service, to operate alongside the one being developed by The Clearing House, is crucial for seeing that institutions of all sizes are able to take advantage of this technology. ... Read full article

There are clear actions that regulators at the CFPB, SEC and FHFA can take to help attract investors into the housing market, argues former FHFA Director Ed DeMarco. ... Read full article

The interpretation by HUD, conveyed in a letter to Congress by Assistant Secretary Len Wolfson, appeared to contradict the agency's earlier comments about borrowers in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. ... Read full article