Claire Williams

The House Financial Services Committee passed a legislative package heavily favored by banks in a 26-16 vote

Sens. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., released new legislative language Monday night that includes a ban on institutional investors' purchase of single family homes and a temporary ban on the Federal Reserve issuing a Central Bank Digital Currency.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., moved to consider the housing package next week, but it's not clear what version of the bill senators will be voting on as the House, Senate and White House are still negotiating priorities.

The bill, offered by Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Todd Young, R-Ind., would allow Federal Home Loan bank members to establish tax-exempt community infrastructure development bonds.

The heads of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and National Credit Union Administration, as well as the Federal Reserve vice chair for supervision, will testify in the Senate Thursday morning in their first joint appearance in the upper chamber since being confirmed.

President Donald Trump talked about institutional single-family home ownership and housing affordability, as well as inflation, but left credit card rate caps, debanking and even crypto alone at the State of the Union address.

Judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia struggled to find a resolution to an injunction issued last year that halted reductions-in-force by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its delayed January employment report Wednesday morning, showing the economy added 130,000 jobs in January. But the agency also sharply revised its estimates for total jobs created in 2025 to 181,000 from 584,000.

A housing bill that already passed the Senate cleared the House Monday evening, but included bipartisan community banking provisions that have already raised objections in the upper chamber.

In a contentious House Financial Services Committee oversight hearing, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sidestepped questions on the Trump family crypto conflicts of interest and inflation with pugnacious responses to Democratic lawmakers' questions.

WomenVenture, a Minneapolis-based Community Development Financial Institution, was already under strain from stalled federal CDFI funding. The recent immigration crackdown added significant uncertainty for its customers as well.

President Trump in Davos, Switzerland, talked about his call for lower credit card interest rates and more affordable housing in a lengthy speech that mostly focused on his plan to take over Greenland.

President Trump said he would prohibit large institutional investors from buying single-family homes. While the executive couldn't bar such investments on its own, a legislative ban could gain bipartisan support.

The Federal Reserve said in a statement that its "understanding of innovation products and services have evolved" since the initial guidance was published in 2023.

Leading Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee sent a letter to Chair Tim Scott, R-S.C., pointing out the as-yet unsatisfied legal requirement for prudential regulators to appear in Congress semiannually.

The House Financial Services Committee discussed allowing banks to experiment with artificial intelligence with a waiver from regulatory penalties, including consumer protection laws, in a hearing.

The National Defense Authorization Act will be voted on by the House without the housing package that passed through the Senate Banking Committee unanimously.

A bipartisan housing provision has emerged as a critical negotiating point for passage of an uncommonly bank-relevant defense authorization bill.

In a relatively mild oversight hearing in the House Financial Services Committee Tuesday morning, regulatory heads at the Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, National Credit Union Administration and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. outlined plans for reduced capital requirements and debanking enforcement.

Regulatory heads of the Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will appear before the House Financial Services Committee Tuesday morning, the first joint appearance of President Trump's banking regulators since taking office in January.