Fed Gives Banks a Break on Some Prior Warnings
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Never mind. In a nutshell, that’s the retroactive guidance from the Federal Reserve to bankers regarding some of its previously issued confidential orders to fix deficiencies. To be sure, the central bank isn’t letting all bygones be bygones — the more serious matters will still get serious attention. But it’s a sign that years of complaints by lenders about over-regulation are having some effect under the supervision of Vice Chair Michelle Bowman. Amid the broader US deregulatory push, Commerzbank’s leader is urging European authorities to keep up so the continent’s banks aren’t left hobbled.
The news on comp was mostly upbeat. Barclays boosted its bonus pool to the highest in at least five years. Payouts rose at JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, too, and UBS is hiring in Hong Kong after a record year. Even one of America’s most prominent socialists benefited from capitalism’s big surge, with Wall Street bonuses cutting $5 billion from the budget hole that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has to fill.
But bankers, check your six: Apollo Global Management has set a lending record in its push to rival Wall Street lenders. Finance is already a hard business, and now Black bankers face a rougher ride with the dismantling of DEI programs.
Artificial intelligence is coming next for ... you fill in the blank. This week it was wealth managers. The Monitor, for one, doubts that an AI bot can hand-hold distraught clients when other AI bots drive the market into its next annual once-in-a-lifetime convulsion. Columnist Paul J. Davies expresses some similarly sardonic skepticism. All this might make you fret about your own career prospects, but AI is A-OK with junior bankers because for them, using the technology is already second nature. — Rick Green