Latest news with #OfficeoftheComptrolleroftheCurrency
Bloomberg
02-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Payments Firm Wise Seeks US National Trust Bank Charter to Access Fed Payments
By , Yizhu Wang, and Emily Mason Save Wise Plc wants to create a national trust bank in the US, in the latest sign of its growing focus on America as it works on moving its main share listing to the country. The London-headquartered payments firm filed its application to be directly regulated by the US's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on June 16, documents show. Its US hub will be in Austin, Texas, where the firm already has some 450 staff.
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
SoFi to Launch Blockchain Remittances With Stablecoins as Crypto Returns to Platform
U.S.-based fintech platform SoFi (SOFI) said on Wednesday it will introduce international remittances through blockchain and stablecoins and allow users to invest in cryptocurrencies this year, making good on its promised digital asset push. The upcoming remittance service will let users send U.S. dollars and select stablecoins to recipients abroad with "well-known" blockchain networks processing the transactions, allowing funds to be sent around the clock, converted into local currencies and deposited quickly into recipients' accounts, according to the press release. The company says this will be significantly cheaper and faster than traditional methods such as wire transfers or bank-based remittances. The firm will also relaunch crypto trading services, letting users buy, sell and hold major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin BTC and Ethereum's ether ETH later this year. Future services could include staking, borrowing against crypto holdings and providing blockchain tech infrastructure to third-parties through SoFi's Galileo platform, the firm said. The moves come as CEO Anthony Noto shared plans earlier this year to re-enter the crypto business after the firm suspended digital asset-related services in 2023 in order to obtain banking license under the previous administration's harsher regulatory environment towards crypto. The change is backed by recent guidance from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that allows nationally chartered banks to offer crypto custody and stablecoin-related services. "The future of financial services is being completely reinvented through innovations in crypto, digital assets, and blockchain more broadly," said Noto in a statment. "We're accelerating our efforts to give members more choice and more control, whether they're investing, sending money across borders, or planning for their future."
CNBC
10-06-2025
- Business
- CNBC
49. Esusu
Founders: Wemimo Abbey (CEO), Samir GoelLaunched: 2016Headquarters: New York CityFunding: $145 millionValuation: $1 billionKey Technologies: N/AIndustry: FintechPrevious appearances on Disruptor 50 list: 0 Nearly 50 million people in the U.S. are considered to be "credit invisible," a number that disproportionately includes low-income and minority Americans, according to research from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. When a consumer is credit invisible, it means that they don't have a credit history with any of the three major credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. That is an institutional hurdle which can hold many Americans back from ever reaching financial security. Fintech startup Esusu is looking to change the way credit is scored, with a focus on housing. On-time mortgage payments are known to increase one's credit score, while on-time rent payments have not typically been factored into credit reports. Many renters don't have any history of credit. Esusu records rental payment data and reports the information to credit bureaus. Since its launch, Esusu has helped renters by generating over 200,000 new credit scores and raising existing credit scores by an average of over 100 points. Property managers also benefit from the on-time rent payment system. Esusu founders Wemimo Abbey and Samir Goel grew up watching their families struggle financially as immigrants from Lagos, Nigeria, and New Delhi, India, and those financial obstacles were a founding motivation for Esusu and its goal of helping Americans build strong credit histories. "When my folks moved here, our journey to pursue the American Dream was just harder than it should have been," Goel told to CNBC in a 2021 interview. "I remember just watching my parents work miracles with no credit and limited financial resources. Abbey and I like to say we are inspired by our experiences." Esusu has paved a path for itself in the fintech industry by serving as a rent reporting provider for major names in finance and real estate including Goldman Sachs, Mercy Housing and Cushman & Wakefield. Last year, Esusu expanded its presence in the direct-to-consumer market. Previously, the company was only available for renters living in an Esusu-participating property. With the launch of myEsusu, all renters are now able to use the application and can choose between a free account or a membership that offers additional tools for $2.50 per month, or $29.99 per year. Application users are able to gain credit for paying their rent on time, learn about credit building products and services, view a credit score hub and access financial resources. Esusu also has partnerships with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to increase the number of units nationally that report rent as part of credit and improve the credit scores across more Americans. The company has received backing from tennis legend Serena Williams' venture capital firm Serena Ventures.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
TD to spend $1B in two-year span on compliance fixes
TD Bank Group plans to invest $1 billion over a two-year period to beef up its anti-money-laundering controls, after compliance failures led to historic regulatory penalties and handcuffed its U.S. growth. The herculean compliance overhaul is TD's top priority, executives said Thursday, as the Toronto-based bank also juggles a new restructuring plan, the scaling back of its American business and growing economic uncertainty due to policies. "While we still have work to do, we remain on track with our planned remediation activities and are building the foundational AML program that we need for the years ahead," said Leo Salom, who leads TD's U.S. banking operations, on a call with analysts. In October, TD agreed to pay $3.1 billion in penalties and was ordered to put U.S. asset growth on hold after allowing the movements of more than $670 million in dirty money through the bank. The company had previously projected spending $500 million on anti-money-laundering remediation efforts during the fiscal year that ends in October, as it upgrades its training, analysis capabilities and protocols. On Thursday, TD Chief Financial Officer Kelvin Tran told analysts that the bank expects similar investments in the fiscal year that ends in October 2026. Salom said during the call that he thinks the bank is making progress. "We wanted to give the Street a sense of what 2026 was going to look like," Salom said. "The composition of spend might change a little bit. It might be a little less remediation, more validation work, more lookbacks, monitor costs, et cetera…. But we think the overall spend level is going to be similar." Across the first two quarters of 2025, the bank has invested $196 million on the anti-money-laundering compliance efforts. Salom said there will be an uptick in those expenses in the back half of the year as the company delves "into the meat of our remediation delivery programs." TD plans to deploy machine learning technology in the third quarter to "increase investigative productivity," along with additional reporting and controls for cash management activities. The bank feels confident about its expense guidance for 2025 and 2026, and those costs will eventually decline "at some point in the future," Salom said. TD also said Thursday that it's on track to meet its previous projection of a 10% reduction in U.S. assets by the end of October. At the end of April, the U.S. bank had about $399 billion of assets, putting it below the $434 billion cap imposed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The bank sold or ran off about $11 billion in U.S. loans during the second quarter, and announced plans to wind down a $3 billion point-of-sale financing business that services third party retailers in the also plowed ahead with plans to remix its bond portfolio by selling relatively low-yielding bonds to reinvest in higher-returning securities. Salom said the bank should meet its forecast of restructuring $50 billion of securities in the next few weeks. The bank expects to generate a benefit to net interest income of close to $500 million between November 2024 and October 2025, he said. While anti-money-laundering efforts have taken center stage at the bank's performance updates, TD also delivered earnings results that beat analyst expectations during the second quarter, which ended April 30, as loan-loss provisions were better than forecast. The bank reeled in adjusted earnings per share of Canadian dollars $1.97, compared with analyst consensus of CA$1.78. Those results didn't include a major gain from the company's sale of its investment in Charles Schwab. The company announced in February it would exit its entire 10.1% stake in the brokerage firm. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Analysis-Banking sector says easing of US leverage rules could support Treasury market
By Pete Schroeder, Saeed Azhar, Davide Barbuscia WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) -The banking industry is optimistic that U.S. regulators will soon move to change how much capital they set aside against typically safe investments, particularly after the turmoil in Treasury markets last month. Such a move to revamp the "supplementary leverage ratio" could reduce the amount of cash banks must reserve, freeing them up for more lending or other activities, and could incentivize banks to play a larger role in intermediating Treasury markets. "Current leverage-based capital requirements are outdated and at odds with financial stability and economic growth. Reform is needed quickly to better serve U.S. taxpayers, capital markets, consumers, businesses, and the economy," said Kevin Fromer, the president and CEO of the Financial Services Forum, which represents the nation's largest banks. Regulators have flagged the SLR as meriting reconsideration and are mulling whether to tweak the rule's formula to reduce big banks' burdens or provide relief for extremely safe investments, like Treasury bonds. The debate is driving industry hopes that agencies could as soon as this summer propose an overhaul, according to three sources familiar with the matter. Bank lobby groups, including the Forum and the Bank Policy Institute, which also represents larger banks, have been pushing for the change. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told lawmakers last week that a revamp was a "high priority" for the three regulatory bodies charged with the rule: the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Banks have argued for years that the SLR, established after the 2007-2009 financial crisis, should be reformed. They contend it was meant to serve as a baseline, requiring banks to hold capital against even very safe assets, but has grown over time to become a binding constraint on bank lending. BPI President and CEO Greg Baer called reform "overdue and welcome" in a statement to Reuters. When asked by Congress in February if the leverage requirements discouraged banks from helping intermediate the Treasury market, Fed Chair Jerome Powell agreed, and said it was time to revisit the issue. Such reforms are on a long wishlist the banking industry hopes to advance with the Trump administration, which has made deregulation to spur economic growth a top priority. Spokespeople for the Fed, FDIC and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which shares responsibility for the SLR, declined to comment. OPTIONS DEBATED Currently, all banks are required to hold 3% of their capital against their leverage exposure, which is their assets and other off-balance sheet items like derivatives. The largest global banks must hold an extra 2% as well in what is known as the "enhanced supplementary leverage ratio." Regulators could provide relief by simply exempting Treasury bonds and central bank deposits from calculations of the SLR. That is the approach the Fed took when it provided temporary emergency relief during the COVID-19 pandemic. Or, in what three industry sources believe is a more likely option, they could look at tweaking the "enhanced" SLR, which instead of exempting Treasuries broadly refines the formula, resulting in a lower ratio. Regulators tried to ease that requirement in 2018, during President Donald Trump's first term in the White House, setting the extra capital based on a bank's specific risk profile, but it ultimately failed to advance. The largest banks, which are also the most prominent Treasury market participants, would stand to benefit most directly from the second option. Banks hope any leverage relief coincides with a broader push to overhaul other capital requirements, including the so-called "GSIB surcharge" applied to the largest, most complex banks, and an ongoing effort to overhaul annual "stress tests" of big bank finances. While discussing quarterly earnings last month, several bank executives touted SLR reform alongside other capital relief. "The SLR requires us to hold capital to level against riskless assets and Treasuries and cash; that doesn't make a lot of sense," Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said in April. Proponents of the SLR argue it is critical to have a tool that is blind to risk as a key backstop, and a simple, direct requirement on leverage can help ensure no dangers are overlooked. But such relief could potentially lend more liquidity to Treasury markets, which have struggled to function amid periods of intense stress. The $29 trillion Treasury market, a cornerstone of the global financial system, saw an aggressive selloff in April, sending U.S. borrowing costs higher. Market expectations about potential reform helped push the spread of swap rates over Treasuries higher in recent months, as Trump's victory in the November 5 presidential election fueled hopes of broader deregulation in financial markets. Swap spreads, which reflect the gap between the fixed rate on an interest rate swap and the yield on a comparable Treasury security, are often used to hedge or bet on shifts in rates. They tightened dramatically, however, during the bond selloff that followed Trump's April 2 "Liberation Day" tariff announcement. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
