Regulation

Income share agreements, which allow college graduates to repay tuition financing as a percentage of their future income, have come under fire lately from consumer advocates for questionable marketing and other potential legal violations. Some hope a partnership between a Virginia bank and an ISA provider will give the product more legitimacy, while others worry it just masks risks for borrowers.

The White House's firing of Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mark Calabria sparked immediate speculation about who will run the agency and help chart the future of the two mortgage giants. Potential nominees include ex-Obama administration officials, congressional staffers and members of the Biden transition team.

The chief operating officer now oversees numerous divisions at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. But as part of a reorganization, the COO’s position is being eliminated and several units will come under the direct authority of the comptroller.

A congressional resolution that invalidates the regulation issued last fall by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency would help regulators crack down on so-called rent-a-bank schemes that promote predatory lending, the president said before signing the measure.

Financial services companies are set to be exempt from a global plan to make multinational firms pay more tax to the countries where they operate, in a win for U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak.

Six online lenders and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition have asked the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for clarity on whether disparate-impact rules apply to lending decisions made by machines.

Sixty-one percent of executives at large U.S. banks said their institution would be prepared to comply with the kind of testing now happening in the U.K., according to a new survey. But experts question whether bankers are underestimating the data-gathering challenges ahead.

Nine of the 12 largest banking companies in the U.S. proposed higher quarterly payouts to shareholders. In announcing the actions, the banks touted their strength after more than a year of economic dislocation.

Some of the 23 large banks that participated in last week’s stress tests will be better positioned to reward shareholders than others, since they padded their capital amid the pandemic. Still, all are expected to tread cautiously amid ongoing economic uncertainty.

Four companies — Regions Financial, MUFG Americas Holdings and the U.S. arms of the Royal Bank of Canada, BMO Financial— felt they had something to prove to the Federal Reserve after being assigned higher capital buffers than most of their peers last year. Will their decisions pay off for shareholders?