Interest rates

When the once-ubiquitous interest rate goes away at the end of June, some businesses that have older loans may see a sudden jump in their payments. Banks, lawyers and business leaders are doing last-minute work to avoid that scenario.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams says there is no evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic has ended the era of very low interest rates experienced before the crisis, although growth may be slower in the long run.

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said he favored more monetary policy tightening to reduce persistently high inflation, although he said he was prepared to adjust his stance if needed if credit tightens more than expected.

Financial tightening stemming from two recent bank collapses has served as its own check on inflation, according to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. He said the relatively small rate hike announced Wednesday was not the result of financial stability concerns.

Economists have warned since last summer that speedy monetary tightening could be destabilizing. This week, the Federal Reserve will decide whether to stay on that course.

The Bank Term Funding Program, rolled out by the central bank on Sunday night, offers par value for underwater securities that banks pledge to obtain short-term loans. Industry insiders expressed optimism on Monday that it will buy time for institutions that have been hit by rising interest rates.

One year after the Federal Reserve started frantically raising interest rates, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank answered what had become perhaps the hottest question on Wall Street: When is something going to break?

The FDIC named Greg Carmichael, who retired last year as CEO of Fifth Third Bancorp, to run a bridge bank that will hold Signature's deposits and most of its assets.

The Federal Reserve's quantitative-tightening program risks being propelled toward an early end as U.S. politicians bicker in Washington over raising the national debt limit, according to some economists and bond market participants.

The impact of a weakening economy on quarterly performance will become clearer by the second week of January as banks begin to report fourth-quarter earnings.

Recent clashes over how much investors should get paid when borrowers switch to a new benchmark are a small part of a much larger struggle by global regulators to shift markets away from the scandal-tainted London interbank offered rate.

Wells Fargo cut hundreds more mortgage employees Thursday, the latest in a series of reductions across the industry after higher interest rates brought the pandemic-era home-lending boom to halt.

Federal Reserve officials at their meeting earlier this month concluded it would soon be appropriate to slow the pace of rate increases, signaling the central bank was leaning toward downshifting to a 50-basis-point hike in December.

While rising rates buoy revenue for the country's largest banks, in the short term they also force them to write down the value of assets they hold on their balance sheet, exacerbating a capital squeeze that's prompted most of them to halt buybacks.

The Federal Reserve appeared closer to moderating aggressive interest rate increases after welcome news on inflation, with three officials backing a downshift even as they stressed that policy needs to stay tight.

Federal Reserve officials signaled their aggressive campaign to curb inflation could be entering its final phase even as they delivered their fourth straight 75 basis-point interest-rate increase.

Ahead of this week's Federal Open Market Committee meeting, where it is expected to enact another large rate hike, 11 lawmakers sent a letter to the central bank, urging it not to go too far.

The American consumer is "in good shape" and spending more this month than a year earlier, even amid inflation, jittery markets and international tensions, according to Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan.

Banks including Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase have pulled back on financing for offices and other commercial real estate following a record burst of lending in the first half of this year. 

Federal Reserve officials stressed the need to keep raising interest rates even as they reserved judgment on how big they should go at their meeting next month.