Housing starts decreased by 9.8% in January from the month prior to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.36 million, the Commerce Department reported. The rate was 0.7% below the January 2024 level. New building permits — an indicator of future demand — rose 0.1% in January from the month prior but was 1.7% lower than last year.
With low housing supply continuing to be a concern, planned conversions of office commercial real estate into residential units are starting to pick up.
The OCC released the first quarter 2025 mortgage metrics report, which showed that 97.6% of first-lien mortgages in the federal banking system were current and performing at the end of the quarter.
The Department of Justice announced it has seized $225.3 million in funds linked to cryptocurrency investment scams. The action marks the largest cryptocurrency seizure in Secret Service history.
Financial institutions filed 4.7 million suspicious activity reports in fiscal year 2024. They filed 20.5 million currency transaction reports during the same time frame.
The Treasury Department is exploring ways to streamline the filing process for suspicious activity reports and currency transaction reports as part of a broader effort to modernize BSA enforcement, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Michael Faulkender said.
Amid tariff-related volatility, how are small and midsize businesses and the banks that serve them faring?
