• A U.S. district judge denied President Donald Trump’s request to block Deutsche Bank AG and Capital One Financial Corp. from giving his financial documents to House Democrats, a ruling that Trump’s attorneys could appeal. The decision follows another courtroom loss for Trump this week, with a different federal judge ruling that Congress can demand records from Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA LLP. (The Washington Post)

• The Treasury Department is unlikely to release its redesigned $20 bill featuring Harriet Tubman instead of Andrew Jackson before 2028, later than the previous estimate of 2020, Steven Mnuchin said. The Treasury Secretary said his main focus on the currency is counterfeiting, and that there would be a “security feature redesign” in 2020. (Politico)

• Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has introduced a bill that would impose a 0.5 percent tax rate on stock trades, a 0.1 percent tax rate on bond trades and 0.005 percent on derivatives transactions, a move he said would generate as much as $2.4 trillion in a decade and discourage high-frequency trading. The tax, which has little chance of passing Congress but signals Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign priorities, could offset the cost of tuition-free college and help reduce student debt, he said. (Bloomberg)

Trump’s Point Man on China Trade Is Still Trying to Close the Deal
William Mauldin, The Wall Street Journal

As senior officials from the U.S. and China gathered in the Oval Office in February, President Trump had a simple message for his top negotiator, Robert Lighthizer: Close the deal. “Mr. Lighthizer has done a great job,” Mr. Trump told the negotiating teams, as reporters looked on.

The Wealth Detective Who Finds the Hidden Money of the Super Rich
Ben Steverman, Bloomberg Businessweek

Gabriel Zucman started his first real job the Monday after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Fresh from the Paris School of Economics, where he’d studied with a professor named Thomas Piketty, Zucman had lined up an internship at Exane, the French brokerage firm.

USDA farms out economists whose work challenges Trump policies
Liz Crampton, Politico

The Agriculture Department is moving nearly all its researchers into the economic effects of climate change, trade policy and food stamps – subjects of controversial Trump administration initiatives – outside of Washington, part of what employees claim is a political crackdown on economists whose assessments have raised questions about the president’s policies. Since last year, employees in the department’s Economic Research Service have awaited news of which members of their agency would be forced to relocate, after Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue stunned them by declaring he was moving most of the agency to a location outside the capital.

House rebukes Mulvaney’s efforts to rein in consumer bureau
Sylvan Lane and JulieGrace Brufke, The Hill

The House voted Wednesday to undo the Trump administration’s reining in of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and prevent future directors from replicating those efforts. The bill from Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, passed the chamber along party lines in a vote of 231 to 191, with no Republicans supporting the measure.

In Debate Over Fed Holdings, Officials Seek Maximum Recession-Fighting Firepower
Nick Timiraos, The Wall Street Journal

Federal Reserve officials began a formal debate at its latest policy meeting around the task of determining the composition of Treasury securities the central bank would hold after it ends the runoff of its asset portfolio. The debate is focused on how to manage a mix of Treasury bills, notes and bonds to give the central bank the most firepower possible to stimulate the economy in another economic downturn.

U.S. Could Run Out of Room on Debt Ceiling in Late Summer, Mnuchin Says
Kate Davidson, The Wall Street Journal

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the government could run out of room to keep paying its bills in full and on time in late summer unless Congress raised the federal borrowing limit before then. The Treasury Department has been using extraordinary measures to keep making on-time payments to bondholders and other federal-benefit recipients since March 2, when the borrowing limit, or debt ceiling, was reinstated after being suspended for a year.

New York Legislature passes bill to share Trump’s state taxes with Congress
Bill Mahoney, Politico

ALBANY — The New York Assembly passed legislation Wednesday that will let New York’s Department of Taxation and Finance share political officials’ state tax returns with congressional committees, giving Democrats new ammunition in their attempt to obtain more information about President Donald Trump’s finances. “It is extremely important that we have transparency when it comes to tax returns,” said Assemblyman David Buchwald (D-White Plains), the bill’s sponsor. “No one should be above the law.”

Mnuchin Presses Companies for Trade War Contingency Plans
Alan Rappeport, The New York Times

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Wednesday that he was personally questioning some of America’s largest companies about their plans for weathering the Trump administration’s trade war with China, including encouraging firms to reorient their supply chains and source their products elsewhere. The discussions come as the trade dispute between the United States and China shows no signs of abating and suggests that the Trump administration is digging in for a protracted battle that could inflict substantial pain on consumers.

Stocks Slump, Dollar Rises as Trade Worries Deepen: Markets Wrap
Yakob Peterseil, Bloomberg

Stocks slumped globally on Thursday as the simmering trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies took a greater toll on markets. Safe assets were in demand, with gold and the yen gaining alongside the dollar and Treasuries.

Cory Booker wants banks to stop charging so many overdraft fees
Li Zhou, Vox

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) is bringing back legislation that takes aim at the big banks by severely curbing their use of overdraft fees. These fees come up when people spend or withdraw more than their available checking account balance, and they’ve become a crucial source of revenue for financial institutions that have long targeted low-income customers who struggle the most to stay out of debt.

NYC Subway’s New Way to Pay Prompts Banks to Update Cards
Jennifer Surane, Bloomberg

New Yorkers won’t have to worry much longer about perfecting their subway swipe. More than 20 years after the initial switch to MetroCards from tokens, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is unveiling the ability to use tap-to-pay credit and debit cards for subway and bus fares.

Deutsche Bank Says Software to Detect Money Laundering Had a Bug
Jack Ewing, The New York Times

Deutsche Bank acknowledged on Wednesday that it had used faulty software to screen customer transactions for suspicious activity, another blow to the lender’s reputation as top executives prepare to face restive shareholders at its annual meeting. Already under fire for lax money-laundering controls, the bank confirmed the essence of a report in Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper that revealed software problems in its efforts to curb such activity.

Deutsche Bank chief prepares shareholders for ‘tough cutbacks’
Olaf Storbeck, Financial Times

Deutsche Bank’s chief executive Christian Sewing is preparing a radical overhaul of the ailing corporate and investment bank, telling shareholders at its annual meeting in Frankfurt that the lender was prepared “to make tough cutbacks”. Mr Sewing, in charge during a 13-month slide of 40 per cent in the share price of Germany’s largest lender, did not disclose his plans in detail.

Republican Senate bill would delay CECL until further study
Neil Haggerty, American Banker

Banks and credit unions would not have to comply with a new loan-loss accounting standard until regulators study the impact it will have on credit availability and small financial institutions under legislation introduced by Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., introduced a bill Tuesday that would require federal regulators to conduct a quantitative study of the potential impacts of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s new Current Expected Credit Loss standard, or CECL, delaying financial institutions’ compliance with the new policy a year.

Retirement savings bill seeks small business buy-in
Doug Sword, Roll Call

The House on Thursday will take up what could be the most significant changes in retirement savings policy in more than a decade. But the bill’s backers acknowledge it’s just an initial step in addressing what critics call a huge hole in Americans’ nest eggs, at a time when traditional pension plans are increasingly rare and Social Security is facing financial headwinds.

NYSE Cuts Fees to Court Biotech Listings Away From Nasdaq
Corrie Driebusch and Alexander Osipovich, The Wall Street Journal

The New York Stock Exchange is making a bid to lure biotechnology IPOs that usually go to Nasdaq Inc., the latest sign of an intensifying rivalry between the two exchanges. NYSE is lowering fees for companies with little to no revenue, a typical characteristic of biotechnology firms still in the development phase.

Expats’ Millions in Life Savings Disappear From Mexican Accounts
David Welch, Bloomberg Businessweek

In late December, Kathy Machir called Marcela Zavala Taylor, her banker of nine years at Mexico’s Monex Casa de Bolsa, to get cash for contractors building her retirement home in San Miguel de Allende. Typically, Zavala would wire money or dispatch her assistant, Juan, on his motorcycle with an envelope full of pesos.

FDIC, payday lenders agree to settle Choke Point lawsuit
Hannah Lang, American Banker

Payday lenders have settled their lawsuit with two banking agencies over allegations that regulators improperly forced banks to terminate account relationships as part of the Obama administration program known as Operation Choke Point. The lawsuit by Advance America and Cash Advance Centers, Inc. accused the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency of pursuing a stealth campaign in conjunction with the Department of Justice to shut the payday lenders out of the banking system.

Will housing issues be a focus of 2020 race?
Hannah Lang, American Banker

Housing policy continues to be in vogue in the capital, with officials zeroing in on a reform plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and House Democrats focused on affordable housing initiatives. Yet increasingly housing is in the spotlight on the presidential campaign trail as well.

HUD moves to allow discrimination against homeless transgender people
Katy O’Donnell, Politico

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is moving to roll back protections for homeless transgender people by enabling HUD-funded providers of shelters to consider a person’s sex or gender identification in determining whether they can be admitted. The proposal, included in the department’s spring rule list out Wednesday, contradicts a pledge that HUD Secretary Ben Carson made to lawmakers just yesterday.

TurboTax Uses A “Military Discount” to Trick Troops Into Paying to File Their Taxes
Justin Elliot and Kengo Tsutsumi, ProPublica

In patriotism-drenched promotions, press releases and tweets, TurboTax promotes special deals for military service members, promising to help them file their taxes online for free or at a discount. Yet some service members who’ve filed by going to the TurboTax Military landing page told ProPublica they were charged as much as $150 — even though, under a deal with the government, service members making under $66,000 are supposed to be able to file on TurboTax for free.

States’ Last-Ditch Bid to Kill Trump’s SALT Cap Eroded by Data
Joe Light, Bloomberg

It was always a long-shot, but a quixotic lawsuit by four northeastern states to squelch the Trump tax law’s cap on state and local tax deductions is getting undermined by a repetitive drip of strong economic data. New York, Connecticut, Maryland and New Jersey will get their first hearing in June on a last-gasp attempt to kill one of the most controversial provisions of the 2017 tax law.

Circle Cuts 10% of Staff, Cites Restrictive Crypto Regulations
Julie Verhage, Bloomberg

Circle Internet Financial Ltd., a closely held mobile-payments firm which acquired one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges last year, is eliminating 30 positions, or 10% of its workforce, citing an increasingly restrictive regulatory environment for digital assets. “Circle remains strong and healthy, and we will continue to drive new product innovation and growth globally, working with jurisdictions that offer forward-looking policies regulating digital asset businesses, while we press for more balanced crypto policy in the U.S.,” Jeremy Allaire, the startup’s co-founder and chief executive officer, wrote in a tweet.

Early adopter: Clearing House real-time payments lands first small bank
Nathan DiCamillo, American Banker

Avidia Bank in Hudson, Mass., is set to become the first small bank to join The Clearing House’s real-time payment system, even as many other community banks are continuing to pressure the Federal Reserve to offer its own faster payments service. The $1.6 billion-asset bank is adding the real-time payment network to its payment options for both commercial clients and the fintechs it serves, said Bob Conery, chief operating officer at Avidia.

Why Trump’s ‘Blue State Tax’ Is Fizzling Out
Karl W. Smith, Bloomberg

It wasn’t too long ago that New York’s governor was sounding the alarm about the revenue the state was losing because of the 2017 federal tax-reform law. Like his colleagues in other blue states, Andrew Cuomo was worried about the effect of the law’s cap on state and local tax deductions.

Understanding Five Major Federal Tax Credit Proposals
Steve Wamhoff et al., Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

Federal lawmakers have recently announced at least five proposals to significantly expand existing tax credits or create new ones to benefit low- and moderate-income people. While these proposals vary a great deal and take different approaches, all would primarily benefit taxpayers in income groups who received only a small share of benefits from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.