Contradictory regulations, such as the CFPB’s QM standards and HUD’s new fair lending rules, inhibit banks’ ability to devote resources to their businesses.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Consultant Crackdown: Deloitte Financial Advisory Services has struck an agreement with New York's Department of Financial Services that will see the advisory firm pay $10 million and receive a one-year ban from soliciting new work in the state in order to settle allegations it mishandled its anti-money laundering review of U.K. bank Standard Chartered. The agreement, which also requires Deloitte "to implement reforms designed to address conflicts of interest," is part of…

In the S&L crisis, regulators manipulated capital to prop up ailing thrifts. Today, regulators embrace risk-based requirements assuming they can correctly predict the future.

Even great bankers cannot succeed when forced to compete in a market with an influx of new banks and a shortage of skilled bankers, wise directors and experienced regulators.

The SEC's recent roundtable on ratings shopping in structured finance was a reminder of how efforts at reform are obstructed by a wall of denial.

Breaking News This Morning ... Charges Filed: The U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office has charged former UBS and Citibank trader Tom Hayes with eight counts of fraud in connection with the London interbank offered rate-rigging scandal. The charges represent the first time U.K. authorities have pursued criminal penalties against someone allegedly involved in the manipulation of Libor, says the Journal. Per the FT, the move sets up "a potential conflict" between the U.S. and the U.K. since…

Given America's romance with small business, it certainly can't hurt to be seen out there supporting mom and pop.

When the government backs any system, the beneficiaries have only limited interest in the risks they are taking. Senators Corker and Warner have fallen into this trap.

Many developed countries, free from the U.S. impulse to see every product as something to track, do not share its inclination to frown on financial privacy.

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Co-op Bank 'Bails In' Bondholders: As part of its efforts to raise an additional $2.4 billion in capital, U.K. lender Co-operative Bank is asking subordinated bondholders to swap their debt securities for shares in the bank. "By requiring bondholders to exchange their debt securities for shares, Co-operative Bank is trying to avoid turning to the British government for help," Dealbook notes. Participation in the swap is currently voluntary. Analysts tell the Journal…

Social channels may encourage complaints, but it is in banks’ best interests to publicly demonstrate they are fixing the problem.

Straightening out bad actors is fine, but it won’t resolve the inconsistencies and consumer confusion about overdraft protection cited by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Fallout from RBS's Hester Ousting: The Royal Bank of Scotland's firing of its chief executive, Stephen Hester, will send bank staff morale "to rock bottom," the Financial Times reports, and more defections are expected. In a related note, RBS announced Thursday it would wind down its remaining equities sales and trading businesses and will cease to offer structured retail investor products and equity derivatives; this is expected to lead to 2,000 job…

Federal regulators must not rely on standard measures of differences between outcome rates without considering the way those measures change simply because the frequency of an outcome changes.