By Bill Poquette, Editor-in-Chief
Bankers were disappointed that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 passed in late December last year failed to address credit union taxation. Yet, there may have been some comfort in an encouraging confluence of events over the next 60 days.
By Bill Poquette
Wells Fargo, the nation’s second-largest bank, was pummeled two years ago with more than $400 million in regulatory fines and restitution for opening millions of bogus accounts and repossessing the cars of military borrowers for auto insurance payments wrongfully billed by the bank. Not to mention lots of bad press.
By Bill Poquette
A variety of year-end reports remarked on the vigor of bank merger activity in 2017 and generally foresaw the trend continuing over the next few months. Indeed, the pace was picking up as the year wound down.
By Bill Poquette
Ten years ago this month, the American Bankers Association Economic Advisory Committee predicted weak economic growth with recession odds nearing 50 percent. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., listed as his “first and highest priority” addressing the nation’s economic challenges. And Bank of America bought Countrywide Financial, whose infamous chairman and CEO, Angelo Mazilo, had become a living symbol of the subprime mortgage crisis. The year 2008 saw 25 banks fail.
By Bill Poquette
In a rare display of bipartisanship, agreement was reached by members of the Senate Banking Committee on legislative proposals to overhaul the nation’s financial regulatory framework. Joining Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, in announcing the legislative plan were committee members Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Mark Warner, D-Va., along with eight other Republican senators, five Democrats and one Independent.
