Banking

The credit-reporting agency was fined $650,000 for sending customers marketing emails without an option to unsubscribe. Financial institutions are subject to the same law, called the CAN-SPAM Act.

Industry executives coming off a tough year are wondering what the transition will cost and how many borrowers it'll bring in.

This first step in updating borrower assessments was seen as the easiest and could reduce costs, but stakeholders fear change that reduces data inputs.

The company is rolling out a special-purpose credit program to help address what it describes as "the biggest barriers to achieving homeownership." Such programs are gaining popularity among banks.

Moody's said higher funding costs, a potential decline in bank capital and growing risk in the commercial real-estate industry prompted many of the downgrades.

Firms that had ratings cut included M&T Bank, Webster Financial, BOK Financial, Old National Bancorp, Pinnacle Financial Partners and Fulton Financial.

Lenders including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have been trying to sell debt backed by offices, hotels and even apartments in recent months, but many are finding that tidying up loan books is no easy feat when concerns about commercial real estate have surged.

The Federal Reserve is leading the push for broader, more standardized risk-capital rules, yet some of its board members, other regulators and industry groups are uncomfortable with the proposal.

The decision from the Federal Housing Finance Agency to allow lenders to review only two credit reports for mortgage applicants will harm homebuyers with less than perfect credit, writes the founder and CEO of Financial Services Innovation Coalition and a certified general appraiser at the Dawson Valuation Group.

The racially targeted mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store in 2022 has renewed conversations about whether banks have a duty to help segregated, impoverished communities that were shaped in part by discriminatory lending practices. What do banks owe the Black community, and what influence could they have?