• Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the United States objects to the World Bank’s Country Partnership Framework for China, a loan program worth more than $1 billion a year to fund green investments and other programs. The comment comes amid continued trade tension between the United States and China and the growing sense in Washington that China should no longer be considered a developing country. (Financial Times) 

• House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and other House Democrats criticized Mnuchin for reducing the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s role in supervising nonbanks, shortly after the council released its annual report saying it would focus on risky activities rather than on financial companies. In response, Mnuchin defended the council as doing “a lot on oversight” and contended that the lack of financial institutions designated as systemically important was a positive development. (Politico) 

• Wells Fargo & Co. will refund some checking account customers in 2020 following confusion from some customers over which debit card transactions allowed them to qualify for a waiver of monthly fees, the bank’s Chief Executive Charlie Scharf said in a Dec. 2 letter to Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.). Scharf didn’t say how much Wells Fargo could refund but said the bank is “working closely with our regulators to finalize a comprehensive remediation plan.” (American Banker) 

House passes bill to explicitly ban insider trading
Sylvan Lane, The Hill

The House on Thursday passed a bill to explicitly ban making financial trades based on confidential information, a process commonly known as insider trading. Lawmakers approved the Insider Trading Prohibition Act by a near unanimous 410 to 13 vote, with just 12 Republicans and independent Rep. Justin Amash (Mich.) opposing the bill.

The unpredictability of Donald Trump’s trade policy
Alan Beattie, Financial Times

US president has shown he can do a lot of reneging in a remarkably short space of time.

Mnuchin Working Closely With Fed, Bank Regulators on Repo Market Issues
Kate Davidson, The Wall Street Journal

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday he is working closely with the Federal Reserve to make sure there are ample reserves, or deposits banks keep at the Fed, following funding strains in money markets in September. Mr. Mnuchin said he has met with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell multiple times and had discussed the issue as recently as Thursday morning.

China to Waive Trade War Tariffs for Some U.S. Soy, Pork Purchases
Bloomberg

China is in the process of waiving retaliatory tariffs on imports of U.S. pork and soy by domestic companies, a procedural step that may also signal a broader trade agreement with the U.S. is drawing closer.

Stocks Advance With Bonds Before U.S. Jobs Data: Markets Wrap
Sam Potter, Bloomberg

Stocks climbed alongside S&P 500 futures on Friday as investors counted down to U.S. jobs data and watched for any further developments ahead of the looming tariff deadline between America and China. Bonds also advanced.

Wall Street says it cares about diversity. But most big banks won’t share complete workforce data.
Renae Merle and Jena McGregor, The Washington Post

Allison Gamba spent 10 years at Goldman Sachs gunning for a promotion to managing director. She said she worked long days and significantly increased the profits from the stocks she traded for the bank on the New York Stock Exchange.

JPMorgan banker testifying for cartel prosecutors says there was no agreement
Bryon Kaye, Reuters

A prosecution witness in an Australian criminal cartel case against Citigroup Inc (C.N) and Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE) said on Friday that the banks never colluded, but that he helped a regulator build its case to get immunity. The testimony from former JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) markets head Jeff Herbert-Smith in court is a blow to the prosecution, which is relying on JPMorgan to support a case that the three global investment banks engaged in criminal cartel behaviour in a A$2.5 billion share issue for Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ.AX) in 2015.

Democrats seek assurance regulators won’t weaken CRA
Neil Haggerty, American Banker

Bank regulators have not yet even published their long-awaited draft on reforming the Community Reinvestment Act and Democratic lawmakers are already worried that the plan will weaken the original intent of the law. A day after House Democrats pleaded for the heads of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and the Federal Reserve to get in sync on their revamp of the decades-old CRA, Senate Democrats on Thursday said they were worried that the agencies’ plans will reduce access to credit.

Once a Tool of the Elite, Metal Credit Cards Now Turn Up Everywhere
AnnaMaria Andriotis, The Wall Street Journal

Pulling out a black metal American Express card shows power and the wherewithal to make a six-figure purchase. James Bond wields one.

One of Wall Street’s Most Lucrative Businesses Is at Risk
Sonali Basak, Bloomberg

They flew in from across the U.S.—venture capitalists and entrepreneurs—to discuss a new way to sell stock to the public and keep more money for themselves. The venue, appropriately, was a landmark hotel nicknamed “The Bonanza Inn.”

FHA loan limits increasing for almost all of U.S. in 2020
Ben Lane, HousingWire

Thanks to increases in home prices in 2019, the Federal Housing Administration loan limit will increase for nearly all of the country in 2020. According to an announcement from the FHA, the 2020 FHA loan limit for most of the country will be $331,760, an increase of nearly $17,000 over 2019’s loan limit of $314,827.

Joe Biden’s plan to raise taxes on corporations and the rich, explained
Matthew Yglesias, Vox

Joe Biden wants to see higher taxes on the rich, especially those who derive most of their income from stock ownership and other investments, according to a detailed revenue plan first reported this week by Bloomberg. The former vice president’s overall vision for increasing social spending in the United States is ambitious — headlined by a $1.7 trillion climate plan, a $750 billion health plan, and a $750 billion education plan — but significantly less so than the ideas that left-wing rivals Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have put on the table.

Mnuchin expresses concerns about proposed taxes on financial trades
Naomi Jagoda, The Hill

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday said he has a number of worries about financial transaction taxes (FTTs) — taxes on Wall Street trades that are being proposed by progressive Democratic lawmakers and presidential candidates. “I am very concerned that that would destroy our capital markets, and the cost to American holders of mutual funds would bear the majority of the cost,” Mnuchin said at a House Financial Services Committee hearing.

Georgia Senator’s Cryptocurrency and Stock Exchange Ties Make for Tricky Balancing Act
Gabriel T. Rubin, The Wall Street Journal

The appointment of Kelly Loeffler as the next senator from Georgia puts a top financial executive in a position to oversee her former company’s regulators. Loeffler spent more than a decade as a senior executive at Intercontinental Exchange Inc., or ICE, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange and other market platforms. 

Despite the rise of online banks, millennials are still visiting branches
Kate Rooney, CNBC

Online banks are betting that millennials don’t want to visit physical branches, but a new report from Jefferies challenges that theory. Physical banking locations “are still viewed as important” — especially by younger folks, and are still a top factor in picking a new bank, according to a new Jefferies retail banking survey published Thursday.

A Message from The Clearing House:

Recently, The Clearing House conducted a survey to dive deeper into consumer perceptions about how financial apps access, collect, use, store and share their data. The survey poll included nearly 4,000 U.S. banking consumers who have accounts, loans, and mortgages with a financial services provider. See findings.

Artificial Intelligence on Wall Street is a Good Thing for Main Street
Kristen Wegner, Morning Consult

The rise of machine learning, new trading technologies and passive investment vehicles are continuing to accelerate the automation of our nation’s financial markets. While this ongoing evolution needs to be responsibly managed by the private and public sectors, the reality is that automated markets are unlocking tremendous benefits for society.

Wealth Tax Is a Decent Idea, Though Probably Unconstitutional
Alan S. Blinder, The Wall Street Journal

The idea of a wealth tax has been in the news of late, mainly because of campaign proposals from Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Commentators mostly paint the issue in stark black or white: A tax on wealth is either a marvelous idea, essential to reducing inequality in America, or a horrible idea destined to fail.

Why Is Trump a Tariff Man?
Paul Krugman, The New York Times

Almost exactly one year has passed since Donald Trump declared, “I am a Tariff Man.” Uncharacteristically, he was telling the truth.

Policy Interventions in Sovereign Debt Restructurings
Maximiliano A. Dvorkin et al., The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

The wave of sovereign defaults in the early 1980s and the string of debt crises in the decades that followed have fostered proposals involving policy interventions in sovereign debt restructurings. A key question about these proposals that has proved hard to handle is how they influence the behavior of creditors and debtors.