OVERNIGHT FINANCE: Spending, Syria votes could come Wednesday

In June 2014, credit unions reached 100 million memberships. With growth in credit union membership, and an American public that is increasingly skeptical of traditional financial institutions since the 2008 bank bailouts, The Hill is convening a discussion on the new financial services landscape. Register here.
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LEGENDARY LOBBYIST DIES. Megan R. Wilson for The Hill: “Thomas Hale Boggs Jr., the heir to a political dynasty who helped build one of Washington’s most successful law and lobby firms, died at his home on Monday. He was 73.” http://bit.ly/1oRmvRv. 

{mosads}TOMORROW STARTS TONIGHT: The latest on the stopgap saga from Martin Matishak and Rebecca Shabad: “House Republicans expect to unveil legislation Monday evening that would give President Obama the authority to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels, but with some limits on that authority.

“The House Armed Services Committee is drafting the bill in consultation with the administration. It is expected to take the form of an amendment to a stopgap-spending bill that would keep the government funded through Dec. 11, according to a senior committee aide.

“Votes on the spending bill and the Syrian aid could come as soon as Wednesday.” http://bit.ly/1DbHHeF. 

THIS IS OVERNIGHT FINANCE, where we’re refreshed after a great weekend hiking through Manassas National Battlefield Park. Tweet: @kevcirilli; email: kcirilli@digital-staging.thehill.com; and subscribe: http://digital-staging.thehill.com/signup/48.

Big week… let’s go…

MARK YOUR CALENDAR: My look at the week ahead for the financial services world… Wednesday: new policy statement from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)… Full schedule here: http://bit.ly/1DbOuFg.

PROGRAMMING NOTE: Join me at 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday for a conversation with Reps. Denny Heck (D-Wash.), Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) and Rob Woodall (R-Ga.) about the financial services landscape. We’ll be streaming online, too.  Register here.

It’ll be a great conversation and we’ll have lots to talk about…

DAILY DISTRACTION: JANET YELLEN’S CALENDAR – – > Matt Stiles and Jon Hilsenrath over at The Wall Street Journal have a graphic on the Fed chairwoman’s calendar. Check out who she’s met with, including a 5-minute phone call with Export-Import Bank President Fred Hochberg. http://on.wsj.com/1qXgQwC.

GREENSPAN SPEAKS OUT AGAINST SCOTLAND INDEPENDENCE. The Financial Times reports: “A ‘Yes’ vote for independence would be an economic mistake for Scotland and a geopolitical disaster for the west, senior US figures – including Alan Greenspan – tell the Financial Times as Washington wakes up to the chance that its closest ally could break up this week…

— GREENSPAN tells FT: “[It’d be] surprisingly negative for Scotland, more so than the Nationalist party is in any way communicating… Their [nationalist] forecasts are so implausible they really should be dismissed out of hand… There’s no conceivable, credible way the Bank of England is going to sit there as a lender of last resort to a new Scotland.” http://on.ft.com/1qFRbLi.

FLASHBACK – LEHMAN BROS. COLLAPSE. White House officials looked to highlight signs of an economic recovery today on the sixth anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse.

— Jeff Zients, director of the National Economic Council, blogs: “While more work remains to continue digging out of the deep hole that was left by the crisis, this week offers a chance to reflect on the significant progress that has been made since then in strengthening the economy and reforming the financial sector.”

— Lost in translation? Our Justin Sink points out that most Americans are blaming the administration for the sluggish recovery. “According to a Wall Street Journal / NBC News poll released last week, a majority of Americans, 53 percent, disapproved of the president’s handling of the economy. Some 43 percent said they approved. Only 27 percent of those surveyed predicted the economy would get better over the next year, while a majority, 51 percent, said it would get worse. Two in 10 believe economic conditions will worsen.” http://bit.ly/1m6ppXk.

QUOTABLE, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), speaking on the Senate floor earlier today: “A woman who performs the same work as a man should be paid the same as a man. Senate Republicans simply cannot accept that notion. They believe it is fair for men to be paid more than women for doing the exact same thing.” Ramsey Cox reports: http://bit.ly/1q8umJV.

BIZ CIRCULATES DODD-FRANK FIX-IT LETTER, this via our own Pete Schroeder: Big business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers wrote to Congress today urging support of Reps. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) and Gary Miller’s (R-Calif.) Dodd-Frank tweaks. Read the letter: http://bit.ly/1wmtIyf

Barr-Miller is by no means a Dodd-Frank “fix-it,” and the Senate has already passed a version of the bill, which lets the Federal Reserve tailor its capital rules to insurance companies. Insurance companies had long-argued that they shouldn’t have to follow the same rules as banks.

Barr-Miller does have some additional tweaks that could irk the upper chamber. But according to Ryan Tracey at the Wall Street Journal: “Jaret Seiberg, a policy analyst with Guggenheim Securities, said in a note to clients Monday that the provisions in Reps. Barr and Miller’s bill aren’t controversial and the Senate could quickly approve the bill this week if no Senators oppose it.” Tracy’s story: http://on.wsj.com/1nYinPz.

BIPARTISANSHIP BEHIND BARS. Ramsey reports: Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) announced that their bill to reform nonviolent drug sentences would reduce prison costs by more than $4 billion, according to a recently released Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report. http://bit.ly/Znc9Ty.

BANKS ANXIOUS OVER PAWLENTY? Carter Dougherty scoops for Bloomberg BusinessWeek: “Tim Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor turned bank lobbyist, is backing down from an election-style campaign against the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after complaints from the firms he represents.”

“Pawlenty’s group, the Financial Services Roundtable, started a website and bought ads on billboards and social media, attacking a website the regulator uses to collect complaints about banks and other financial-services providers.”

“The move raised objections among roundtable members such as JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc., who weren’t consulted on the campaign, according to four people briefed on the debate within the organization. The banks didn’t want to needlessly antagonize an agency that polices them, the people said.

“They told Pawlenty and his staff they didn’t like the media blitz, or the fact that Pawlenty didn’t consult them before starting it, the people said. Some members apologized to the bureau for the campaign, and said they didn’t approve it, two people briefed on the talks said.

— THE BOTTOM LINE: “Pawlenty got the message. ‘We don’t have any more plans for a public process,’ he said in an interview. ‘Some members had anxiety… It involved some risk.’” http://buswk.co/1ph0KtE.

APPLE – THE NEWEST BIG BANK? From over the weekend, my piece with Jullian Hattem: “Apple’s move into mobile banking could bring the tech giant under the same federal regulations as financial institutions. At a product launch event this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook made waves by unveiling a new mobile banking system that allows consumers to wave their iPhones for purchases instead of swiping debit and credit cards.

“The product has generated tremendous buzz in the tech community, with some analysts predicting a revolution in the way people shop. Apple is putting its considerable muscle behind the product, promising to work with more than 222,000 merchant locations in the United States. Visa, MasterCard and American Express are already onboard, as are Whole Foods, Macy’s and Disney. 

“But by moving into the mobile payment space, Apple might soon find itself subjected to new oversight from federal regulators… In comments that it filed with the bureau [last] week, the Federal Trade Commission said the technology could be revolutionary for people without a bank account and for those on the go, but it has also raised alarms about security and the privacy of people’s data…

“The privacy concerns loom, especially large for Apple, which is still dealing with the fallout from a leak of celebrities’ nude photos stored on its cloud system. 

While the latest scandal doesn’t involve mobile payments, Apple will no doubt have to answer how it plans to manage consumers’ private financial information.

The company seems well aware that it needs to play up its privacy protections.” http://bit.ly/1s3GbZw.

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