The two megabanks said that their capital requirements will rise in the wake of Federal Reserve stress tests, putting downward pressure on their distributions to shareholders. Meanwhile, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and others announced plans to raise their dividends.

Several Democratic bills to support down-payment assistance for mortgage borrowers and other housing programs met with protests from Republicans, who said the legislation would further fuel inflation. The GOP maneuvers failed, but they highlighted the parties’ differing priorities ahead of the midterm elections.

Wells Fargo, U.S. Bancorp, Truist Financial and PNC Financial were among the banks that said they are raising their prime lending rates from 4.0% to 4.75%.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sent a mass email to thousands of the bank's customers and former employees to gather information about the possible creation of phony accounts. Critics — including a federal judge — say the CFPB asked leading questions and may have overstepped its bounds.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating the bank over allegations that it conducted so-called fake interviews with nonwhite and female job applicants, The New York Times reported Thursday.

The American Bankers Association’s credit conditions index fell sharply, as economists foresaw dampening loan demand. The weaker outlook lines up with major bank CEOs’ increased worries over a possible recession.

Banks and fintechs wonder if regulators are getting more comfortable with machine learning-based ways of assessing credit, or if agency oversight will mean a crackdown. 

An American Bankers Association panel of experts predicted much slower economic growth, but agreed that the U.S. economy will avoid a recession over the next couple of years.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon expressed even deeper concern Wednesday about the likelihood of an economic downturn than he has in recent months. Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf was less pessimistic, but he still spoke of the “reality that the economy has to slow.”

Companies on the Best Places to Work in Fintech list offer sabbaticals or generous vacation time, which helps attract young talent and lets veteran employees re-energize.

The nation's largest bank indicated Monday that it may again offer home equity lines of credit to a wide audience. Rising mortgage rates have made the product more attractive after a long drought when low rates suppressed demand.

Several federal agencies have recently stepped up requirements on banks to notify regulators and the public when they fall victim to cybersecurity incidents.

The Federal Reserve will begin shedding as much as $47.5 billion of assets monthly starting June 1 to tamp down on inflation. But doing so could undermine the banking industry’s preferred source of liquidity.

Roughly 24,000 people had new foreclosures listed on their credit reports in the first quarter, up from about 9,000 three months earlier, a Federal Reserve Bank of New York report says. States are trying to cushion the blow on homeowners now that many pandemic-related federal protections have ended.

Multiple factors have slowed residential sales, tightening the market for home loans for banks and credit unions.

Johnson, who currently heads a housing-finance industry group, will take over this summer from longtime president and CEO Richard Hunt.

In a recent survey, just over half of community bankers expressed concern that the central bank will harm the U.S. economy by raising rates too fast in its quest to contain inflation.

The two companies, which have not received government approval to complete their now year-old pending deal, postponed the deadline to Oct. 31 and have decided to make the combined entity a national bank.

The lender is the latest to announce cuts in response to declining production volume.

The bank didn’t disclose which specific employees, or how many, were impacted by the announcement.