federal reserve

The Federal Reserve’s new opt-in requirement for overdraft protections is progress, according to Democratic finance leaders, but legislation providing further consumer protections is still needed.
“Giving customers the chance to choose whether they want ‘overdraft protection’ is important,” Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said in a statement, “but we need to do far more to [...]

Customers will have to opt-in to overdraft protection programs before banks can charge them overdraft fees on debit purchases and ATM withdrawals, according to new finance rules rolled out by the Federal Reserve today. The move marks a sharp departure from current practice, in which many banks silently and automatically enroll their customers into overdraft [...]

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) is set today to unveil legislation overhauling the way the banking industry is regulated. On certain points, the Dodd bill mirrors the wish list outlined by the Obama administration over the summer, including the creation of a new federal agency designed to protect consumers from the increasingly complex world of financial [...]

Attempting to fix a problem that his panel helped create, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) will introduce legislation today to prevent credit card companies from hiking rates on existing balances. Although Congress passed sweeping credit card reforms earlier in the year — including a ban on retroactive rate hikes — the banking lobby [...]

The Federal Reserve on Thursday proposed a new program of monitoring executive compensation at the nation’s largest financial institutions, a move designed to prevent banks from using pay incentives that encourage risky transactions like those that recently toppled the global economy.

This Friday, at 9:30 a.m., the House Financial Services Committee is going to hold a hearing on HR 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act introduced this year by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).
The Fed-centric congressman — he’s currently selling a new book on the subject, “End the Fed” – has collected 291 co-sponsors, including every single [...]

Jason Pye reports that Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) will schedule an October committee vote on HR 1207, the “audit the Federal Reserve” bill introduced by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).
We will subject them to a complete audit. I’ve been working with Ron Paul, who’s the main sponsor of that bill. He agrees we don’t want to [...]

As expected, President Obama reappointed Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to another term today today, noting in remarks delivered in Martha’s Vineyard that Bernanke led the nation, and the world, through one of the worst fiscal crises it has ever faced, Bloomberg reports.
“As an expert on the causes of the Great Depression, I’m sure Ben [...]

Smart Politics crunches the numbers and finds that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), newly minted as the Democrats’ “enemy No. 1″ makes a cable news appearance every 9.1 days. The chart is revealing:

Less than two weeks after Goldman Sachs posted record quarterly profits, some congressional lawmakers are wondering if the Wall Street giant isn’t taking dangerous risks in its investment strategy — risks similar to those that led to the recent financial collapse.
In a letter today to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, 10 House lawmakers are asking [...]