The American Bankers Association yesterday joined with twelve other trade organizations to express strong concern about the American Law Institute’s pending draft Restatement of Law for consumer contracts.

About 20 percent of the decline in young adult homeownership rates -- accounting for roughly 400,000 non-homeowners -- can be attributed to rising student loan debts, according to new research published yesterday by the Federal Reserve.

With the government shutdown now approaching its fourth week, the Farm Service Agency will temporarily reopen several of its offices to provide assistance to farmers and ranchers, the Department of Agriculture announced today.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index rose to 58 in January, up two points from December and rebounding from the lowest reading in three years. Home builders cited declining mortgage rates among the chief reasons for the increase. “The gradual decline in mortgage rates in recent weeks helped to sustain builder sentiment,” said NAHB Chairman Randy ...

House leaders have selected new members for the House Financial Services Committee, according to press reports tonight.

Banker registration is now open for the ABA Foundation’s 2019 financial education programs. This year’s initiative includes Teach Children to Save, as well as Get Smart About Credit and Safe Banking for Seniors.

Responding to a recent American Banker op-ed calling for the expansion of the Farm Credit System, Leonard Wolfe, president and chairman at United Bank and Trust in Marysville, Kan., said that any effort to do so would “fundamentally ignore the reality on the ground in agricultural lending today” and ultimately do little to help rural America. 

Producer prices declined 0.2 percent in December, seasonally adjusted, after rising 0.1 percent in November, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Producer prices rose 2.5 percent on an un-adjusted basis for the twelve months of 2018. The index for final demand goods moved down 0.4 percent in December, mirroring last month’s decline. The index for final demand energy ...

As the National Institute of Standards and Technology works to develop a sector-wide privacy framework, ABA yesterday joined the Bank Policy Institute and SIFMA in a comment letter encouraging NIST to consider existing data privacy frameworks already in place for financial institutions and to work collaboratively with the private sector.

Three-quarters of bank investors disagree that change is necessary to loan loss accounting rules, while just 17 percent support a change, according to a recent survey of non-management bank investors conducted by FIG Partners.