| Happy Wednesday and welcome back to Overnight Finance, which has unfortunately been passed over for a lucrative drone piloting license. I'm Sylvan Lane, and here's your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line. See something I missed? Let me know at slane@thehill.com or tweet me @SylvanLane. And if you like your newsletter, you can subscribe to it here: http://bit.ly/1NxxW2N. THE BIG DEAL: The Treasury Department's inspector general is investigating how Stormy Daniels's lawyer, Michael Avenatti, obtained confidential banking records concerning a company controlled by President Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen. The inspector general's counsel, Rich Delmar, told The Hill that the office is looking into allegations that federally mandated reports filed about Cohen's banking transactions were "improperly disseminated." News of the Treasury investigation, which is focused on the release of Suspicious Activity Reports filed by banks that hosted accounts for Cohen, was first reported Wednesday by The Washington Post. Delmar told The Hill that the Treasury probe is based on a New York Times report from Tuesday that revealed that a shell company set up by Cohen received more than $1 million from an American company linked to a Russian oligarch and several corporations with business before the Trump administration. The Hill's Luis Sanchez and I explain here. Why it matters: Cohen's shell company, Essential Consultants LLC, struck a $130,000 nondisclosure agreement with Daniels, an adult-film star who claims she had an affair with Trump years ago. Avenatti on Tuesday went public with detailed claims about Cohen's banking history, including allegations that he received a $500,000 payment from a company controlled by a Russian oligarch in the months following the 2016 presidential election. Avenatti refused to reveal his source for this information and said investigators should reveal the Suspicious Activity Reports filed on Cohen's account. Banks are required under federal law to flag unusual transactions of over $10,000. Those reports are meant to point the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network toward potentially illegal activity, such as money laundering or bank fraud. Experts told the Post that Avenatti's information could have come from a report filed by Cohen's bank. ON TAP FOR TOMORROW - The Mercatus Center hosts an event on labor force participation and training, 10 a.m.
- Brookings Institution hosts an event on economic mobility across generations around the world, 10:30 a.m.
LEADING THE DAY Mulvaney faces backlash over moving student loan investigation division: Mick Mulvaney, the acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), is facing criticism for folding the agency's student lending office, which handles investigations of abuse, into its education office. In a memo to CFPB staff announcing the move on Wednesday, Mulvaney said the office of "Students & Young Consumers" within the Consumer Education and Engagement Division will be folded into the office of Financial Education. Mulvaney is moving the student loan investigation division inside the bureau's consumer information unit in an effort to shift the agency toward providing consumers with information about their legal rights and away from enforcing and writing consumer finance rules, The New York Times reported. CFPB provided The Hill with a copy of the memo and in a statement called the change a "very modest organizational chart change to keep the Bureau in line with the statute." The pushback: Consumer advocates see the change as an attack on the agency's duty to rein in abusive and predatory lending practices by for-profit colleges and student loan lenders. The Hill's Lydia Wheeler breaks it down here. How the spending clawback could bite back: The Trump administration's push for Congress to rescind $15.4 billion in spending could have unintended consequences, potentially making it harder for lawmakers to find funding for legislation later this year. Many of the funds the administration wants to ax are unobligated, meaning they are leftover from programs that no longer exist or have not been reauthorized. Traditionally, lawmakers have turned to the unobligated funds when they need extra cash for legislation, either because they have already hit the maximum amount allowed by budget caps or because they don't want to add to the deficit. If Congress passes the rescissions package, which is far from certain, it could make it more difficult to pass other kinds of spending legislation throughout the year. Fiscal hawks, concerned about the explosion of deficits, think that's a good thing. The Hill's Niv Elis tells us why. Trump bashes Cordray after former CFPB director clinches primary: Trump on Wednesday slammed former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray (D) as a "socialist" who "should not do well" in Ohio's gubernatorial election this November. Cordray won the Democratic nomination for governor on Tuesday, beating out former Rep. Dennis Kucinich. "Congratulations to Mike Dewine on his big win in the Great State of Ohio. He will be a great Governor with a heavy focus on HealthCare and Jobs," the president wrote on Twitter, referring to Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, who won the Republican primary for governor on Tuesday. "His Socialist opponent in November should not do well, a big failure in last job!" Trump added, referring to Cordray. Cordray, the CFPB's first director, left the agency in November to run for governor in a move that set up a fight over who would serve as his successor in leading the CFPB. Cordray fired back at Trump on Twitter, saying the president's attacks would not push him to back down in the Ohio race. "Very telling that you think $12 billion dollars back to 30 million consumers is a failure, @realdonaldtrump," Cordray wrote. "I never backed down from you or Wall Street. All your name calling won't stop me from fighting those who want to cheat Ohio families, unlike @MikeDeWine." Wall Street surges on higher oil prices: From Reuters: "Wall Street surged on Wednesday as surging oil prices boosted energy stocks following U.S. President Donald Trump's decision the previous day to quit a nuclear agreement with Iran. "Gains were broad and volume was high, with all but the utilities and telecom sectors advancing as investors who had moved to the sidelines in recent days ahead of Trump's decision returned to the market." GOOD TO KNOW - Former President Clinton is taking aim at the GOP tax law President Trump signed in December, calling it a "bullet aimed at New York and California."
- The chief of the Small Business Administration (SBA) on Wednesday touted the early impact of the 2017 tax cuts, citing a spike in loan applications to her agency.
- A law and lobbying firm that formed a strategic alliance with Michael Cohen, President Trump's personal attorney, says it has no knowledge of the controversial payments that he received from corporate clients through a shell company.
- Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE is ceasing all "major operating activities" after being hit by sanctions from U.S. regulators.
- Facebook will create a new team to explore potential applications of blockchain technology, the social media company confirmed on Wednesday.
- White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that she isn't sure there will be an infrastructure bill this year, dealing another blow to lawmakers clamoring for a sweeping infrastructure package.
- Economic ties between the U.S. and Argentina are modest, yet Federal Reserve policy is wreaking havoc on Argentina. It also threatens Turkey, Indonesia and others, for the same reason: their imports, exports and a lot of their debt is denominated in dollars, according to The Wall Street Journal.
ODDS AND ENDS - A federal judge has ordered rapper Jay-Z to testify next week as part of a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation into the sale of his clothing brand more than a decade ago.
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