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A year after Silicon Valley Bank failed, lenders are still feeling pressure on all sides

Feb 23, 2024
Rising interest rates have cranked up the interest banks are paying depositors. But banks also have a lot of cash stuck in low-interest bonds and loans they made before the Federal Reserve started raising interest rates.
A lot of the problems that last year’s bank failures revealed are still troubling small and mid-sized banks today.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

JPMorgan Chase announces brick-and-mortar bank expansion in a digital age

Feb 6, 2024
The country's largest bank says it will open more than 500 new branches and renovate another 1,700. That's good for customers, but what's in it for the bank?
JPMorgan Chase will open up more than 500 new brick-and-mortar branches, some in new markets where the bank doesn't have as much of a presence.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

How pizza can explain a proposed rule about bank capital

Jan 16, 2024
Regulators want to make sure banks have enough money on hand to weather wobbles in the economy. Too much risk can ruin a good meal.
If you think of the funding a bank uses to do business as a pizza, debt would be slices with unusual toppings (which come with more risk) and equity slices would be plain cheese. The proposed rule would require more of those plain slices. But the banking industry warns that would cost more.
Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

"Has there ever been a bigger gap" between economic mood and actual numbers? Chicago Fed president asks

Nov 28, 2023
Chicago Fed's Austan Goolsbee on the consumer sentiment disconnect, and what happens if interest rates stay high for too long.
Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Federal Reserve losses contribute to federal deficit

Oct 24, 2023
When the central bank makes money, it hands it to the Treasury. But now it's losing money as it pays interest to banks on their deposits.
The Fed is, among other things, a bank for banks, and it pays interest to those banks. Those interest rates have gone up. Above, the Eccles building, which houses Fed governors' offices.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Big banks post big profits

Oct 13, 2023
The classic way banks make money rests on three words: net interest income.
Big banks JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup told investors they netted a combined $22 billion this past quarter.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Senate to consider giving cannabis businesses access to banking

Sep 25, 2023
The Senate Banking Committee hearing this week will consider the question of allowing cannabis business owners to open bank accounts for their companies legally.
It’s currently difficult for cannabis business owners to open bank accounts, even in states where marijuana is legal.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Fed is nearing a point when it is not a matter of raising rates, but how long to keep them high, says Chicago Fed CEO Austan Goolsbee

Sep 7, 2023
There is growing confidence that the Fed can pull off lowering inflation without a recession, said Chicago Fed CEO Austan Goolsbee.
"There's a growing confidence that we can pull off" a soft landing, says Chicago Fed chief Austan Goolsbee. "The only thing I want to caution you is that it's not a guarantee."
Mark Wilson/Getty Images

6 months out from SVB's failure, a bank president's optimism has waned

Sep 6, 2023
Pressure to keep more capital puts constraints on banks, says Laurie Stewart of Sound Community in Seattle.
Laurie Stewart, the head of Sound Community Bank in Seattle, says pressures to hold more capital will "impact our ability to serve clients and to be investable."
Courtesy Sound Community Bank