Tag: banks

Trump Admin Finalizes Rule Scrapping ‘Invasive’ DEI Requirements for Small Business Lending

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has finalized a rule that scraps diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) requirements and other burdensome regulations that affect small business lending, saving more than $166 million annually.

“This is a long-awaited win for both borrowers and small businesses. Annual savings from replacing the Biden-Harris rule will exceed an estimated $166 million annually,” Acting CFPB Director Russ Vought said in a statement to Breitbart News. “These reforms not only make borrowing more affordable for America’s small businesses, including our farmers, but minimize burdens on those needing quick access to credit without requiring them to answer unnecessary and invasive DEI questions introduced by the Biden-Harris-Chopra Administration.”

The CFPB, under the Trump administration, has moved to replace the Biden-era Section 1071 rule that was believed to be too invasive, and the Trump administration’s proposal would have the rule go back to the regulation’s intent as stipulated by the Dodd-Frank banking law. The rule intends to help with the administration’s mission to increase affordability as it would seek to save money for borrowers and small businesses who loan to them. It would also help farmers who get access to credit.

The Dodd-Frank Act directed the CFPB to adopt regulations governing the collection of small business lending data. Section 1071 amended the Equal Credit Opportunity Act to require financial institutions to compile, maintain, and submit to the CFPB data on applications for credit from women-owned, minority-owned, and small businesses.

The CFPB rule would reduce the discretionary data points adopted during the Biden administration and focus on data points set out in the Dodd-Frank ACT and only include a few essential discretionary data points such as time in business, number of principal owners, and NAICS code. The rule eliminates:

  • Application method (in-person, online, etc.)
  • Application recipient (direct vs. third-party submission)
  • Denial reasons
  • Pricing information (interest rates, fees, prepayment penalties)
  • Number of workers
  • LGBTQI+-owned business status

The rule modified demographic data collection to comply with the Trump administration executive order that requires binary sex categories of male or female and removes references to gender identity. It also eliminated disaggregated race and ethnicity categories and collects only aggregate categories to limit complexity.

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The Rise of AI in Payments Is Not About Convenience

Visa has just unveiled a new suite of artificial intelligence tools designed to overhaul how credit card disputes are handled, and once again this is being presented as a simple evolution toward efficiency and improved customer experience, yet when you step back and examine the scale of what is unfolding, this is clearly part of a much broader structural shift within the financial system toward centralization and automation.

The numbers alone should make that obvious, with Visa processing over 106 million disputes globally in 2025, representing a 35% increase since 2019, and that type of exponential growth is not something that can be resolved through incremental improvements, it requires a complete restructuring of how the system functions, which is precisely what Visa is now implementing.

They are introducing six AI-driven tools split between merchants and financial institutions, designed to intercept disputes before they even occur, automate responses, and consolidate the entire process into a unified framework where decisions are guided by network-wide data rather than individual judgment, and once you move into that framework, the human element is steadily removed and replaced by algorithmic consistency.

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Trump to Probe Banks Regarding Los Angeles Wildfire Response

U.S. President Donald Trump said on April 23 that his administration will look into banks’ handling of payments and debts in the aftermath of the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires.

Two Los Angeles-area communities were devastated by wildfires in January 2025. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reported that the Palisades fire caused 12 deaths, destroyed 6,845 structures, and damaged 975 more. The nearby Eaton fire, which ignited in Altadena on Jan. 7, 2025, claimed 19 lives. Combined, the fires have claimed 31 lives and destroyed more than 16,000 structures.

Last month, Trump said State Farm and other insurers should “get their act together,” following a meeting with California politicians.

Trump met with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger on Thursday and said he is now turning his attention to banks.

“Since my strong action and statements with respect to Insurance Companies, and the way they were treating the Home Owners, that aspect of this Disaster has proceeded well — Big progress has been made, and those Companies are ’stepping up to the plate,’ as they should be,” Trump ​said in a 23 April post on Truth Social.

“The Banks, however, have a long way to go, and we will be looking into their actions, effective immediately. Wells Fargo, in particular, has been very difficult to deal with. The Banks must treat those people, who so horribly lost their Homes in this tragic fire, very fairly and well. I will be working with the Mayor, Supervisor, and everyone else to help this tragic situation go smoothly.”

A Wells Fargo spokeswoman told The Epoch Times via email that the company did not have a comment to share.

In an April 23 joint statement, Bass and Barger said they had “a very positive discussion about FEMA and other rebuilding funds, as well as the support of the President to continue joining us in pressuring the insurance companies to pay what they owe – and for the big banks to step up to ease the financial pressure on LA families.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in January ​2025 that five major lenders, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, U.S. Bank, and Citigroup, would grant 90-day mortgage forbearance ​to homeowners in Los Angeles and Ventura fire zones. The relief included a pause in credit reporting and the potential for extended aid.

“After so much trauma, we hope this deal will provide thousands of survivors a measure of relief,” Newsom said at the time. “These financial protections will enable residents to concentrate on taking care of their immediate needs rather than worrying about paying their mortgage bills. I thank each of the financial institutions that are offering this help for Californians recovering from this catastrophic firestorm.”

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PIMCO Privately Lends Over $10 Billion To Dollar-Strapped Gulf States

Just days after the UAE hinted at a growing dollar shortage in the Gulf nation by requesting swap lines with the Fed, Bloomberg reports that as Iran’s struggling neighbors scramble to build cash buffers to deal with any potential economic fallout from the Iran war, one large buyer has stepped in: the world’s largest bond manager, Pacific Investment Management Co.

Since the start of the Iran war, Pimco has lent more than $10 billion to state-backed and government borrowers in the Gulf via so-called private placements. The $2.27 trillion asset manager has been a significant buyer of privately placed bonds issued by the governments of Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Kuwait, as well as by Qatar National Bank. Pimco also participated alongside other investors in several placements that boosted the size of existing Abu Dhabi bonds by a combined $2.5 billion. 

In total, regional borrowers raised $13.8 billion from Feb. 28 to April 23, in privately placed bonds denominated in hard currency, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, with Pimco accounting for a majority of that lending.

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Bank of Korea Vows to Create CBDC

The Bank of Korea has now made its position unmistakably clear, and this is precisely what I have been warning about for years. In his very first address, Governor Shin Hyun-song did not merely suggest innovation in digital finance, he explicitly prioritized a system built around central bank digital currencies and bank-issued deposit tokens, while deliberately omitting stablecoins entirely from the discussion. What you are witnessing is not competition in money, it is the consolidation of control.

They are trying to rebrand this as modernization, but behind the curtain this is about power. Shin outlined that CBDCs and deposit tokens will form the core of South Korea’s future monetary system, reinforcing a structure where the central bank and regulated banking institutions remain the gatekeepers of all financial activity. This is not accidental. Deposit tokens are essentially programmable bank liabilities tied directly into a centrally controlled system, ensuring that even when money becomes “digital,” it never leaves the institutional framework.

What stands out is not what he said, but what he refused to say. Stablecoins, which represent a competing form of digital liquidity outside direct state control, were entirely absent from his inaugural speech despite ongoing legislative efforts in South Korea to establish a domestic stablecoin market. That omission speaks volumes. Central banks do not fear volatility, they fear competition.

Even when pressed previously, Shin made it clear that stablecoins would only play a “supplementary” role, not a foundational one. In other words, private digital money may exist, but only within boundaries defined by the state. This is the same pattern we are seeing globally. Governments will tolerate innovation only to the extent that it does not threaten their monopoly over money and taxation.

The Bank of Korea is already expanding real-world testing through initiatives like Project Hangang, aiming to integrate CBDCs and deposit tokens into everyday transactions and even government spending. This is how it always unfolds. First comes the pilot program, then limited adoption, and finally full integration under the justification of efficiency and stability. By the time the public realizes what has happened, the infrastructure is already in place.

They will argue this is about improving payment systems, reducing friction, and enhancing transparency. But transparency for whom? Governments will gain unprecedented visibility into every transaction, every movement of capital, and ultimately every individual’s economic behavior. The original promise of cryptocurrency was decentralization and financial sovereignty. What is being constructed here is the exact opposite.

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Treasury Secretary Says Order on Citizenship Proof for Banking Is ‘in Process’

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday confirmed that an executive order mandating banks to collect citizenship information on customers is underway.

“It’s in process. And I don’t think it’s unreasonable, because, why don’t we have information on who’s in our banking system?” he told Semafor in an April 13 interview, responding to whether the Trump administration was working on the banking order.

“I have a place in the UK; they want to know who lives in every apartment—and how do we know that it’s not part of a foreign terrorist organization?” he added.

At least one Republican lawmaker has asked the Trump administration to implement such an order, and The Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources, that banks could be tasked with requiring people to submit passports under the policy.

In a post issued on X in October 2025, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) included a letter he sent to Bessent urging the secretary to carry out a “comprehensive review of current rules that allow illegal aliens to obtain financial services and access to the U.S. banking system.”

“Access to the American banking system is a privilege that should be reserved for those who respect our laws and sovereignty,” Cotton wrote in the letter. “When individuals are allowed to open accounts without verifying legal status, we are permitting illegal aliens to establish financial roots and integrate economically, all while bypassing the legal channels that millions use properly.”

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IMF Cuts Growth Outlook, Warns Iran War Could Push Global Economy to Brink

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday cut its growth outlook and warned the global economy could edge toward recession if the Iran war intensifies, as energy disruptions ripple through inflation, financial markets, and trade.

In its latest World Economic Outlook and accompanying analysis, the IMF said the Middle East conflict—now disrupting a key share of global oil and gas flows—sent previously positive growth momentum to an unexpected halt and introduced unusually high uncertainty for policymakers and investors.

“Downside risks dominate,” IMF analysts wrote in the executive summary. “Geopolitical tensions could worsen even more than they already have—turning the situation into the largest energy crisis in modern times—or domestic political strains could erupt.”

The fund outlined three scenarios—reference, adverse, and severe—depending on how long the war lasts and how deeply energy markets are affected. Under the most severe case, global growth could fall to around 2 percent, a level historically associated with recession-like conditions that has occurred only four times since the 1980s.

“This shock is large. … It is global. Everybody uses energy. Everybody feels the pinch,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a recent interview with CBS, noting that up to 13 percent of global oil and 20 percent of gas flows have been disrupted.

“People are hurting.”

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Sick Behavior From Financial Psychopaths

I’ve been saying this for months: despite “experts” just sounding the alarm moments ago: the private credit unwind that started months ago and has now spiraled into a very real liability for the economy wasn’t some unknowable tail risk lurking in the shadows.

It couldn’t have been clearer if it was a fucking neon sign blinking THIS ENDS BADLY hanging outside of the 4 train station on Wall Street so industry workers were forced to see it on their way into work every morning.

Not only did I call the private credit collapse, I also argued that it would experience a sharp downturn before the Fed stepped in to bail it out or provide a backstop, despite, once again, the widespread misconduct of mismarking positions and carrying opaque, low-quality assets on the books of the companies managing these funds.

And here we are, right on schedule, watching that script unfold with all the subtlety of Eric Swalwell on a date after 9 whiskey cocktails.

In the last two days alone, Bloomberg reports that the Federal Reserve has gone from politely observing to actively interrogating. Not in a press-release, “we’re monitoring conditions” sort of way, but boots-on-the-ground examiners asking major banks to cough up details about their exposure to private credit.

Translation: they’re not trying to understand the industry, they’re trying to figure out how bad the damage could get and who’s going to be holding the bag when it does.

And what are they likely finding? Exactly what anyone paying attention already knew. Private credit funds didn’t just lend money, they borrowed it, too. Because in good times, leverage makes returns look smooth and irresistible. It turns middling loans into “high-yield opportunities.” It creates the illusion of stability. But in bad times? That same leverage becomes a transmission mechanism, turning localized stress into systemic risk. It’s not a bug, it’s the design.

Meanwhile, the Treasury is now poking around insurers, because of course this nuclear dogshit being peddled as a financial opportunity didn’t stay neatly contained in some alternative-assets sandbox. It likely spread. Into insurance portfolios, retirement products, retail funds…basically anywhere someone was desperate enough for yield to believe the pitch. The industry ballooned to roughly $1.8 trillion (and depending on how you count it, more), all built on the comforting fiction that because it wasn’t traditional banking, it somehow wasn’t subject to traditional banking problems.

Just like we’re seeing with “magically” successful subprime lenders like Carvana, of course they’re still subject to reality. The better question is how they can avoid the assumption they have to face reality at some point. I think we know how Carvana has been doing it: f*cking with the numbers. And private credit is doing the same. Just with worse transparency.

And now suddenly regulators are “assessing spillover risk,” which is the bureaucratic equivalent of checking where the fire exits are while the building is already filling with smoke.

Let’s not pretend we don’t know where this goes. When the Fed starts mapping exposures like this, it’s not because they’re writing a research paper. It’s because they’re quietly preparing the intervention. Maybe it’s a backstop. Maybe it’s liquidity support. Maybe it’s some creatively named facility that sounds temporary but lingers for years (something like the “Assessment of Systemic Stress by Head Office Liquidity & Economic Support” plan, or A.S.S.H.O.L.E.S. for short).

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Bank of America to Pay $72.5M Settlement Over Epstein Lawsuit

Bank of America is paying $72.5 million to settle a federal lawsuit claiming it enabled sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

The lawsuit claimed Bank of America ignored “obvious red flags” while doing business with Epstein and his associates, according to the New York Post.

The bank, so the lawsuit claimed, could have brought law enforcement down upon Epstein sooner if it had adopted a see-no-evil policy. Epstein died in 2019 in a federal jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Bank of America is the third bank to settle a lawsuit linked to Epstein. JPMorgan Chase ponied up for $290 million. Deutsche Bank settled for $75 million.

In a statement, a Bank of America representative said, “While we stand by our prior statements made in the filings in this case, including that Bank of America did not facilitate sex-trafficking crimes, this resolution allows us to put this matter behind us and provides further closure for the plaintiffs,” according to The New York Times.

Bank of America became Epstein’s bank after JPMorgan cut ties with him.

The settlement would pay “all women who were sexually abused or trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein, or by any person who is connected to or otherwise associated with Jeffrey Epstein or any Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking venture, between June 30, 2008 and July 6, 2019, inclusive,” according to CNBC.

Lawyers estimate “that there are at least 60 women who were victimized by Epstein between” those dates, the filing said.

The lead plaintiff  alleged that after meeting Epstein in 2011, and through 2019, “Epstein sexually abused Jane Doe on at least 100 occasions, including but not limited to, forcibly touching her, forcibly raping her, and forcing her to engage in sexual acts with other women for his own depraved sexual gratification.”

The suit says that in May 2013, the woman, known in court papers as Jane Doe opened a bank account at Bank of America at the direction of Epstein’s accountant and an immigration attorney to defraud immigration officials.

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FTC Warns PayPal, Stripe, Visa, Mastercard Against Debanking

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson sent letters on Thursday to the CEOs of PayPal, Stripe, Visa and Mastercard, warning them against debanking practices — including denying access to services due to a customer’s lawful business activities.

“It is inconsistent with American values to deny law-abiding individuals the ability to run their legitimate businesses and feed their families because they attracted the ire of rogue American officials, overzealous activists, or, more worryingly, foreign governments seeking to control public discourse,” the letters read. “That is why President Trump’s August 7, 2025, Executive Order on debanking makes clear that it is unacceptable to debank law-abiding citizens due to ‘political affiliations, religious beliefs, or lawful business activities.’”

As XBIZ reported last year, that executive order prohibits banks, savings associations, credit unions or other financial service providers from restricting access to accounts, loans or other services on the basis of a customer’s lawful business activities “that the financial service provider disagrees with or disfavors for political reasons.”

Following Trump’s executive order, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a report on debanking, in which it named adult entertainment as one of several sectors facing discrimination for engaging in activities contrary to banks’ “values.”

Ferguson’s letters inform the targeted companies that deplatforming such customers, or denying them access to financial products or services, could lead to an FTC investigation and potential enforcement action.

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