• The Bank Term Funding Program, created by the Federal Reserve earlier this month to give U.S. banks access to liquidity in the wake of the collapse of two regional banks, has seen a boost in borrowing activity in recent days, with banks having tapped the fund for $53.7 billion as of Wednesday, up from $11.9 billion last week. U.S. banks were relying less on the Fed discount window, with borrowing falling to $110.2 billion from $152.8 billion last week, while borrowing of another type of loans made to mostly shuttered banks increased to $179.8 billion from $142.8 billion last week. (CNBC)
• Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen clarified her stance on bank bailouts a day after comments to lawmakers sent jitters through markets. In written testimony to lawmakers on Wednesday, Yellen had said the federal government would not issue “blanket” deposit insurance to bank depositors of any size, and rescues would be on a case-by-case basis, but in a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing yesterday, she gave an identical written testimony while adding that “certainly, we would be prepared to take additional actions if warranted.” (Bloomberg)
• Interpol confirmed it arrested Kwon Do-hyeong, also known as Do Kwon, in Montenegro, ending a monthslong search for the Terraform Labs founder. Kwon was wanted on fraud charges in several countries, including the United States, following failure of the TerraUSD and Luna coins, the collapse of which wiped out $40 billion in value from the crypto market. (CNN)
• Deutsche Bank shares fell by more than 13% this morning as the German bank’s cost to insure against default rose to a four-year high. (CNBC) The bank’s credit default swaps had their largest one-day gain on record, rising above 200 basis points, triggering investor fears about the stability of another systemically important bank. (Reuters)

The Fed, Still Inflation-Focused, Raised Rates Amid Bank Uncertainty

The New York Times

CFPB funding is constitutional, Second Circuit court rules

Chris Clow, Housing Wire

The Second Circuit’s decision is separate from a constitutional challenge to the CFPB’s funding structure, which the Supreme Court will hear later this year.

House attempt to override Biden comes up short

Niels Lesniewski, Roll Call

House Republicans came up short in their effort to override the first veto of President Joe Biden’s presidency, meaning Labor Department regulations permitting consideration of environmental, social and governance factors in investing will stand.

Sanders introduces bill to block bank execs from serving on Fed boards

Karl Evers-Hillstrom, The Hill

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced legislation on Thursday to prohibit bank executives from serving on the boards of regional Federal Reserve banks tasked with supervising their firm.

Republicans sharply question Treasury, FDIC on failed banks

Claire Williams, American Banker

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., and Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg about the circumstances leading up to and following the systemic risk determination. Federal regulators granted the systemic risk determination last Sunday, which guaranteed all the uninsured deposits at Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank.

U.S. watchdog orders Virginia debt collector to pay $24 mln for illegal practices

Reuters

A Virginia debt collection company has agreed to pay $24 million over allegedly illegal practices, the top U.S. agency for consumer financial protection said on Thursday, adding that the company had violated a previous order.

2,600 student-loan borrowers are getting $11 million in payments after a federal consumer watchdog accused a debt relief company of illegally charging fees

Ayelet Sheffey, Insider

On Thursday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that 2,600 student-loan borrowers who were charged “illegal upfront fees for student-loan debt-relief services” by GST Factoring, which runs a debt relief business, will receive checks in the mail totaling a collective $11 million.

Companies Big and Small Lose Access to Credit Amid Bank Stress

Jack Pitcher, The Wall Street Journal

Treasury market volatility keeps companies on sidelines during normally busy time for corporate debt financings.

Steady Jobless Claims Show Labor Market Remains Strong

Bryan Mena, The Wall Street Journal

Worker filings for unemployment benefits held nearly steady last week, showing that the broader labor market remains robust despite large companies announcing layoffs. Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, decreased slightly by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 191,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday.

House Republicans Finalizing Offer to Biden on Debt-Ceiling Deal

Erik Wasson, Bloomberg

House Republicans are finalizing a formal list of spending cuts they’ll demand from President Joe Biden in exchange for their support for raising the US debt ceiling, Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington told reporters.

Republicans Say Spending Is Fueling Inflation. The Fed Chair Disagrees.

Jim Tankersley, The New York Times

Jerome H. Powell has said that snarled supply chains, an oil shock following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and shifts among American consumers are primarily behind rapid price growth.

Study: Latinos at higher risk of food insecurity than white counterparts

Astrid Galván, Axios

Latinos and Black American adults are at a much higher risk of experiencing food insecurity than their white counterparts, according a new study by the Urban Institute.

Walmart laying off hundreds of US workers at five e-commerce fulfillment centers

Siddharth Cavale, Reuters

Hundreds of workers at five U.S. Walmart facilities that fulfill e-commerce orders are being asked to find jobs within 90 days at other company locations, a spokesperson confirmed to Reuters.

Accenture slashes 19,000 jobs worldwide

Anna Cooban, CNN

Accenture plans to slash 19,000 jobs worldwide as it attempts to cut costs amid a gloomy economic picture.

Nearly half of parents with adult children still pay their bills

Daniel de Visé, The Hill

Nearly half of American parents with adult children continue to support them financially — to the tune of $1,442 a month on average, according to a new survey.

Citizens Financial eyes bid for SVB’s private bank

David French and Saeed Azhar, Reuters

Citizens Financial Group Inc. is working on a bid to acquire the private banking business of failed Silicon Valley Bank, two people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Executive pay at Silicon Valley Bank soared after big bet on riskier assets

Antoine Gara et al., Financial Times

Bonuses jumped when wager on long-dated bonds boosted lender’s returns.

Senators call on former Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank CEOs to testify

Chelsey Cox, CNBC

Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Tim Scott, R-S.C. are calling on the former CEOs of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank to testify before a Senate committee.

Could the US Really Guarantee All Bank Deposits?

Mackenzie Hawkins and Paige Smith, Bloomberg

A once-unthinkable measure is being floated in Washington’s corridors of power as a possible way to ease the strains suddenly bearing down on small and regional US banks. Normally, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. guarantees bank deposits up to $250,000, a limit high enough to make most bank customers sleep easily at night. But recent stresses in the banking industry have put a temporary increase of the cap, or scrapping it, on the table.

Bankers Bury ‘ESG’ in Pitch Books to Head Off Republican Attacks

Saijel Kishan et al., Bloomberg

Banks and financial firms are quietly recalibrating how they talk about ESG investing in the US, navigating around potential political fights in order to avoid losing lucrative business.

U.S. Banks are sitting on $1.7 trillion in unrealized losses, research says. That’s not a problem—until it is

Will Daniel, Fortune

A new paper by researchers at New York University on March 13 found that SVB and Signature Bank aren’t the only ones with these issues—U.S. banks had unrealized losses of $1.7 trillion at the end of 2022. The losses were nearly equal to banks’ total equity of $2.1 trillion, professors Philip Schnabel and Alexi Savov and the University of Pennsylvania’s Itamar Drechsler explained.

JPMorgan, Citi, BofA tell staff not to poach clients from stressed banks

Lananh Nguyen and Saeed Azhar, Reuters

As a series of U.S. lenders were besieged by customers yanking out their money this month, banking behemoths including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. warned employees: Do not make it worse.

Hundreds of funds to be stripped of ESG rating

Steve Johnson, Financial Times

Unpublished BlackRock research also reveals thousands more will be downgraded in wide-ranging MSCI shake-up

StanChart CEO says AT1 bond wipeout has profound impact

Selena Li, Reuters

Standard Chartered Chief Executive Bill Winters said on Friday Credit Suisse AG’s $17 billion Additional Tier 1 bonds wipeout had “profound” implications for global bank regulations. Winters told a financial forum in Hong Kong the U.S. Federal Reserve move to guarantee non-insured deposits was a “moral hazard”.

American fixed income group will not take legal action over Credit Suisse AT1 wipeout -source

Divya Rajagopal, Reuters

The Credit Roundtable, a lobby group of some of the biggest fixed income asset managers from the United States and Canada, has decided not to take legal action against Credit Suisse AG (CSGN.S), a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.

FHFA announces timeline to sunset FICO Classic credit model

James Kleimann, Housing Wire

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced proposed implementation timelines for the use of the FICO 10T and the VantageScore 4.0 credit score models by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In concert, the government sponsored enterprises also plans to transition to two, rather than three, credit reports from the national consumer reporting agencies within a year.

US watchdog warns of risks of buying crypto asset securities

Hannah Lang, Reuters

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday issued an investor alert warning that firms offering crypto asset securities may not be complying with U.S. laws. Unregistered offerings of such securities may not provide important data, including audited financial statements, for informed decision making, the SEC said.

Crypto firm Tether says it has around $1.6 billion in excess reserves to back its USDT stablecoin

Arjun Kharpal, CNBC

Cryptocurrency firm Tether estimates it will make $700 million profit in the March quarter, taking its total excess reserves to over $1 billion, the company’s technology chief told CNBC, revealing the latest figures for the first time.

Is This Finally an Atomic Bomb From the SEC?

Jesse Hamilton, CoinDesk

The warning to Coinbase that it’s breaking securities laws may signal the long-awaited attack on crypto’s foundations but also may set up a court fight that finally answers questions.

Can Zelle’s bank-wallet sibling also be a household name?

Kate Fitzgerald, American Banker

Zelle last year moved more money than Venmo and Cash App combined, though it launched years after those upstarts. Now Zelle’s upcoming bank-wallet sibling hopes to push aside incumbents like Apple Pay and PayPal.