Overnight Finance: Jobless claims near record low | Cops bust IRS phone scam in India | Republican demands Iran sanctions docs

Jobless claims near lowest level since 1973: Jobless claims fell last week to their second lowest level in nearly 43 years as employers retain their workers amid a tightening labor market.

{mosads}First-time filings for unemployment benefits dropped 5,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 249,000, down from the previous week’s 254,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. It’s the lowest number of claims since late 1973, with the exception of one week in mid-April.

Claims hit a four-decade low of 248,000 in April. The Hill’s Vicki Needham tells us all about it: http://bit.ly/2cXuCMW.

Analysis: Trump’s child care plans could carry steep price tag: Donald Trump’s plan to expand child care to more Americans could cost as much as $680 billion over the next decade, according to new analysis.

The Republican presidential nominee has vowed that he would make it more affordable for Americans to obtain child care and paid maternity leave if elected. But the conservative American Action Forum (AAF) determined Thursday that it could come at a steep cost and likely would outpace Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s child care plan.

Depending on how many people participate in Trump’s proposals, as well as how many employers drop their own benefits once the government provides an alternative, the costs of the program could swing widely. But the AAF determined that if enacted, Trump’s plan would cost between $182.4 billion and $680.1 billion over 10 years. The Hill’s Peter Schroeder explains why: http://bit.ly/2dinSu0.

Lew: US, China trying to finish up bilateral investment treaty: Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Thursday that a bilateral investment treaty with China isn’t ready yet, but the Obama administration wants to wrap up a deal this year.

The United States and China have spent years trying to forge an agreement on the investment treaty with the aim of completing a deal before President Obama leaves office.

But Lew said there will be no compromising standards to meet that target. Vicki Needham tells us more: http://bit.ly/2cXuY6n.

Happy Thursday and welcome to Overnight Finance, where we’re hoping all of our friends in the Southeast U.S. stay safe. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.

Tonight’s highlights include more trouble for a vulnerable House Republican on the Financial Services committee, pressure on Obama administration regarding Iran sanctions and a busted IRS scam.

See something I missed? Let me know at slane@digital-staging.thehill.com or tweet me @SylvanLane. And if you like your newsletter, you can subscribe to it here: http://bit.ly/1NxxW2N.

On tap tomorrow: September jobs report released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.

Report claims GOP lawmaker held fundraiser with official from ‘domestic terrorist’ group: Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.), who chairs a powerful committee overseeing Wall Street, recently headlined an event organized by an official for a group his state considers a “domestic terrorist threat.”

Bloomberg Businessweek reported on Thursday that Garrett, who’s facing the toughest reelection fight of his House career, was featured at an Oct. 1 breakfast organized by Edward Durfee, the regional coordinator for New Jersey Oath Keepers.

New Jersey’s Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness lists the Oath Keepers group among “militia extremists” that “pose a moderate threat to New Jersey because of fundraising and recruitment efforts in the state, involvement in protests and standoffs across the United States, and their ability to coordinate and organize on a national scale.”

Durfee co-founded the American Bedrock Foundation, which he explained to Bloomberg Businessweek serves as the fundraising arm for the Oath Keepers. The foundation co-sponsored and collected funds for the breakfast attended by Garrett: http://bit.ly/2dVYjQF.

New questions for Wells Fargo: Eleven Senate Democrats on Thursday demanded answers from Wells Fargo over the seizure of hundreds of cars owned by members of the military.

Led by Sens. Jack Reed (R.I.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio), the group wrote a letter to Wells CEO John Stumpf calling on the bank to step up compliance with the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), which protects troops from financial stress while they are serving.

“It appears to us that rather than going beyond what the SCRA requires, Wells Fargo has systematically, over the past 10 years, failed to live up to the basic requirements of the statute,” the lawmakers wrote.

The letter comes following Wells Fargo being fined $24.1 million by the Justice Department and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for as many as 413 alleged violations of the law between from 2008 and 2015. Of that, the bank agreed to pay more than $4 million to compensate borrowers. The Hill’s Vicki Needham has more: http://bit.ly/2dPfdiI

Lew sees opening for trade deal in lame duck: Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Thursday expressed confidence that Congress will pass President Obama’s signature trade agreement after the November elections.

Lew, who has remained consistently upbeat about the prospects of ratifying the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), said a vote for the massive Asia-Pacific deal in the lame-duck session should be easier for lawmakers than the one they cast last summer for trade promotion authority. 

“I think we can get there,” Lew said at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

He argued that the TPP deal, completed a year ago this week, meets the high bar set by Congress on issues such as improving labor and environmental standards, while giving the United States more control to shape the terms of global trade. Here’s more from Vicki Needham: http://bit.ly/2cVAqLY.

Fed bars two HSBC bankers: The Federal Reserve has barred two former HSBC traders from employment in the banking industry, citing concerns over their recent criminal indictments, the central bank said Thursday.

Mark Johnson and Stuart Scott, former heads of foreign exchange trading at the British bank, face U.S. charges of committing wire fraud in a  The Justice Department said the men, both British citizens, used inside information to front-run the deal, which involved trading dollars to pounds, to make $8 million in profit for HSBC.

The Federal Reserve said it issued the ban on Johnson and Scott because the criminal charges against them could erode confidence in any bank that might employ the men.$3.5 billion currency deal made in 2011. The Hill Extra’s Anjelica Tam has the details: http://bit.ly/2dQ7pTc

Police in India arrest 70 for IRS phone scam: Police in India this week arrested 70 people allegedly involved in a scam in which some pretended to be IRS agents, according to media reports.

The scam involved nine call centers in Thane, near Mumbai, where employees impersonated IRS workers and threatened victims that they would be arrested if they didn’t pay them. The scammers would sometimes ask victims to transfer funds by buying gift cards from iTunes and other businesses, and other times victims deposited money into bank accounts, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Those who were arrested include people suspected of having leading roles in the scam. Hundreds of others are being investigated following raids on the call centers.

CNN reported that the call centers were making as much as $150,000 per day and had been in business for up to a year. Here’s more from The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda: http://bit.ly/2dweaK1.

Blumenthal bill would help terror victims get damages: Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) unveiled legislation Thursday that would make it easier for terror victims to recover court-awarded funds from Iran.

The bill, according to Blumenthal, closes two loopholes that have allowed Iran and other state sponsors of terrorism to hide funds through illegal transfers to and from foreign banks.

“Victims of terrorism and their families have waged courageous legal campaigns to hold state sponsors of terrorism accountable for their atrocities, only to be thwarted,” Blumenthal said in a statement. “My bill will ensure that state sponsors of terrorism cannot hide from American justice.” The Hill’s Katie Bo Williams tells us how it works: http://bit.ly/2dytEK5.

Cotton demands White House docs on Iran sanctions: A Republican senator is asking for all documents related to the Obama administration’s controversial January decision to support lifting sanctions on two Iranian banks.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) in a Thursday letter asked the State Department and Department of the Treasury to release records regarding Bank Sepah and subsidiary Bank Sepah International’s release from United Nations sanctions.

Republicans have accused the administration of paying a “ransom” after the U.S. gave Iran $1.7 billion in cash to settle a decades-old lawsuit soon after a prisoner swap.

The White House and administration officials countered that the prisoner release, settlement and sanction relief were part of several parallel diplomatic efforts.

In his letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Secretary of State John Kerry, Cotton wrote the sanctions relief “will create a strong incentive for Iran and other malign actors around the world to capture and detain Americans for use as bargaining chips.” I’ve got it all here: http://bit.ly/2dWeQHX.

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