• Stephen Moore, President Donald Trump’s possible pick for the Federal Reserve Board, said he would drop out of the process if something he’s done “becomes a political problem” for the White House or Senate Republicans voting on his confirmation, particularly those who are up for re-election in 2020. In the meantime, Moore said he is “totally committed” to the nomination as long as the White House is. (The Wall Street Journal)

• Slightly more tax filers this year received a refund, 73.2 percent compared to 73.1 percent last year. The average refund amount was down $55 from last year to $2,725, according to Internal Revenue Service data. (The Washington Post)

• Deutsche Bank AG has begun to give the New York attorney general’s office documents related to Trump’s finances in response to a subpoena, according to a person familiar with the matter. The records include emails and loan documents related to Trump International Hotel in Washington, the Trump National Doral Miami, Trump buildings in Chicago and Trump’s unsuccessful bid for the National Football League’s Buffalo Bills. (CNN)

Cantor Fitzgerald Doesn’t Want This Woman Talking About Her Mug in Court
Katia Porzecanski and Max Abelson, Bloomberg Businessweek

Lee Stowell couldn’t find her Bernie Sanders mug. It was August 2016 at the Summit, N.J., outpost of Cantor Fitzgerald, the Wall Street brokerage.

Help Wanted: Regulators Seek Executives to Staff Failed Banks
Rachel Louise Ensign, The Wall Street Journal

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is assembling a stable of executives who could be installed in top jobs at failed banks, taking advantage of a calm spell in the business to better prepare for the next downturn. The regulator has interviewed dozens of bankers over the past two years or so in search of people qualified to serve as board members or executives at banks seized by the agency in the future, FDIC officials said.

Why America is learning to love budget deficits
Sam Fleming and Chris Giles, Financial Times

For a newly elected Democrat, it was an unusual way to make your mark. Ben McAdams, the Democratic representative from Utah, this month tabled an amendment that would make it unconstitutional in normal circumstances for the American government to fail to balance its books. The proposal, which he says prompted a fierce backlash from within his own party, reflects a fear that both fellow Democrats and Republicans are giving up on any attempt to curb the budget deficit.

Pence hits the road to save new Trump trade deal
James Politi, Financial Times

Mike Pence, the US vice-president, traveled to the heart of the US auto industry in Michigan to try to rally support in Congress for the Trump’s administration’s new trade deal with Canada and Mexico, amid signs that its approval could be held up for months or even years.  The move by Mr Pence highlights the administration’s increasingly urgent need to address the resistance to the agreement — renamed from Nafta to the USMCA — from congressional Democrats who now control the House of Representatives and have a crucial role in the ratification process.

Trump’s IRS Audit Files Offer ‘Treasure Trove’—If Congress Ever Gets Them
Richard Rubin, The Wall Street Journal

Democrats want six years of President Trump’s tax returns, and those should be plenty interesting. But it is the other documents they are seeking—administrative files for the president’s IRS audits—that may prove most revealing.

Trump suggests Mueller ‘checked my taxes,’ despite no mention of them in report
Felicia Sonmez, The Washington Post

President Trump suggested Wednesday that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and his team examined documents related to Trump’s personal finances as part of their Russia probe, despite the fact that Mueller’s report made no mention of doing so. “Now Mueller, I assume, for $35 million, checked my taxes, checked my financials — which are great, by the way,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Wednesday morning.

Stocks Mixed as Traders Digest Flood of Earnings: Markets Wrap
Eddie van der Walt, Bloomberg

U.S. equity-index futures were mixed on Thursday and European shares edged lower as investors parsed a slew of earnings against a backdrop of global growth concerns. The dollar hit a four-month high.

OCC official tied to Wells Fargo scandal lands role overseeing midsize banks
Kevin Wack, American Banker

Last year, the former top regulatory official overseeing Wells Fargo stood accused of improperly disclosing sensitive information about a government investigation to the scandal-plagued bank. Now Bradley Linskens is getting a new job at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, where he has worked for more than two decades.

Citigroup’s CEO Says Income Inequality Keeps Him Up at Night
Jennifer Surane, Bloomberg

Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Officer Michael Corbat said the widening income gap in the U.S. ranks high on the list of things that keep him up at night. Growing income inequality in the U.S. and around the world has led to increasingly “polarized politics,” Corbat said in his company’s annual citizenship report, released on Wednesday.

Deutsche Bank Deal Talks With Commerzbank Break Down
Ben Dummett and Jenny Strasburg, The Wall Street Journal

Banking giant Deutsche Bank AG DB -0.47% and its crosstown rival Commerzbank AG CRZBY -2.40% Thursday ended merger talks, leaving in tatters the German government’s hope to shore up both banks and create a banking powerhouse. The failure to unite the two ailing lenders is likely to unleash fresh attempts by other banks to scoop up one or both of the banks, a process that could spur the biggest reshuffling of European banking assets since the financial crisis.

Barclays’ Investment Bank Struggles as Activist Investor Pressures Unit
Margot Patrick, The Wall Street Journal

Barclays BCS -0.93% PLC Chief Executive Jes Staley dismissed the need for any strategic changes after first-quarter net profit in its corporate and investment bank fell 28%. Activist Sherborne Investors is calling for Barclays to move capital away from the investment bank and shrink its markets business.

UBS investment bank profit plunges 64%
Stephen Morris, Financial Times

UBS reported a 64 per cent plunge in first-quarter profit at its investment bank as revenue from its core equity trading and advisory businesses fell sharply, adding to pressure on long-serving chief executive Sergio Ermotti. The Swiss bank blamed “reduced client activity and deleveraging driven by lower market volatility” for the 22 per cent decline in equities revenue and a “lack of private transactions” for the 48 per cent fall in the advisory and capital markets division.

BofA, Wells Fargo, BNY Mellon shareholders reject proposals to narrow pay gap
Andy Peters, American Banker

Shareholders at Bank of America on Wednesday joined other bank investors in rejecting proposals to provide more compensation data in the interest of closing the gender pay gap. Similar shareholder proposals were filed this year with Bank of New York Mellon, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase. BNY Mellon and Wells shareholders rejected the proposals this month. JPMorgan’s annual meeting is set for May 15 in Plano, Texas.

Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Ross McEwan resigns
Julia Kollewe, The Guardian

Royal Bank of Scotland’s chief executive, Ross McEwan, has resigned after five and a half years in the job, saying now is the “right time” to leave. The 61-year-old New Zealander has a 12-month notice period and will remain at the helm of the bank, which is still 62% owned by the UK government, until a successor has been found and an “orderly handover has taken place.”

The Man Who Ditched Snoopy and Fought the Feds to Insure MetLife’s Future
Leslie Scism, The Wall Street Journal

When Steven A. Kandarian was named chief executive officer of MetLife Inc. back in 2011, it looked like smooth sailing ahead. The global financial crisis was over.

Warren Buffett: ‘I’m having more fun than any 88-year-old in the world’
Robert Armstrong et al., Financial Times

In the stock market, small margins separate success from failure. Ten per cent is a big difference in performance; 100 per cent, an oceanic one.

Visa profit jumps, lower cross-border volume weighs on shares
Aparajita Saxena, Reuters

Visa Inc reported higher expenses and lower spending by people using its cards abroad on Wednesday even as increased overall consumer spending drove quarterly profit 14 percent higher. Shares of the company were trading lower after the bell as investors worried over a slide in cross-border volume growth, which measures the value of transactions made on a Visa card outside a customer’s home country.

Fannie and Freddie’s Uncertain Future, Explained
Christina Rexrode and Heather Seidel, The Wall Street Journal

Fannie Mae FNMA -3.56% and Freddie Mac FMCC -2.31% are the heart of the U.S. housing system. They’re also a topic of intense debate.

Cory Booker’s Tax Returns Show He Got Stung by SALT Deduction Cap
Joe Light and Laura Davison, Bloomberg

Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker released 10 years of tax returns on Wednesday, and like many of his neighbors, the New Jersey senator got stung by a new cap on deductions of state and local taxes. Booker, one of 19 Democrats running for their party’s 2020 presidential nomination, reported that he earned $152,715 in total income in 2018, but gave $24,000 to charity, which puts him in the top tier of candidates for philanthropy.

Venmo Has 40 Million Users, Outnumbering Most Big Banks
Peter Rudegeair, The Wall Street Journal

More than 40 million individuals used Venmo in the past 12 months, making the digital-money transfer service among the most popular financial apps in the country. PayPal PYPL 0.30% Holdings Inc. lifted the veil on the size of one of its fastest-growing segments for the first time on Wednesday as part of its first-quarter earnings release.

Crypto’s Long Road to Acceptance May Have Started Here
Alastair Marsh, Bloomberg

He sent the invitations when the party was over. Only after the cryptocurrency craze’s collapse hit bottom in December did Standard Chartered Plc veteran Hoe Lon Leng issue his call to the market’s biggest traders: join him to brainstorm making digital tokens part of the world’s financial architecture.

Fintech charters, CRA and data sharing: McWilliams, Otting weigh in
Rachel Witkowski, American Banker

Federal regulators gathered Wednesday to discuss the fintech chartering process and some of the biggest challenges deterring the emerging industry from entering the banking space. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Jelena McWilliams and Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting agreed, separately, at a fintech event hosted by the FDIC, that fintechs are having a harder time than expected proving capital and profitability in their business plans when seeking a charter.

Son Creates Stock-Buying Startup After Mom Misses Million Dollar Opportunity
Anders Melin and Brandon Kochkodin, Bloomberg

Aaron Shapiro’s quest to rethink employee stock purchase plans began with a startling insight: If only his mother had participated in one, she’d be a millionaire today. A few years ago, she asked her son for financial advice and mentioned her employer’s ESPP, which she didn’t understand.

Warren’s Free College Time Machine
The Editorial Board, The Wall Street Journal

Elizabeth Warren doesn’t appear to be capturing the imagination of American voters, but her policy proposals are a guide to where Democrats are heading if they win the White House in 2020. So check out her new plan to cancel some $640 billion in student loans, which Democrats once promised would be a money maker for government.

How progressive is Senator Elizabeth Warren’s loan forgiveness proposal?
Adam Looney, Brookings Institution

Presidential candidate and Senator Elizabeth Warren proposes to forgive up to $50,000 of student debt for borrowers with household incomes of less than $250,000. According to her analysis, the proposal would cost $640 billion plus another $610 billion over 10 years to make public college tuition free for future students, and would wipe out debts for 75 percent of student borrowers and make a huge dent in it for others.