Jeff Horwitz

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) has sued the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. over Washington Mutual's legal liabilities, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is a rare government agency that funds private enforcement of its own regulations. It does so via its Fair Housing Initiatives Program, which offers grants to nonprofits to carry out the work.

The National Fair Housing Alliance's claims that banks have failed to maintain homes in minority neighborhoods are based on shaky factual and legal ground. However, alliances between the nonprofit and its allies in government may leave bankers with little choice but to settle.

The National Fair Housing Alliance has accused big banks of discriminating against minorities in the upkeep of foreclosed properties and is seeking millions in settlements — mostly for itself. Behind its demands are faulty data and grants overseen by a federal official with close ties to the group.

JPMorgan Chase's decision to freeze much of its credit card debt collection operations ahead of regulatory actions appears to have cost it hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Office of the Comptroller Currency ordered JPMorgan Chase to refund fees to certain retirement account customers whom it steered into its own mutual funds. The move reflected regulators' broader concerns about conflicts of interest in its giant asset management business.

The Office of the Comptroller of Currency has begun issuing its examiners "best practice" guidelines to end big banks' use of faulty records in the sale of defaulted consumer debt. The move could threaten billions of dollars of sales to collections agencies.

JPMorgan Chase has stopped selling most of its bad loans to third-party collectors in recent months as it braces for regulatory action over its credit card debt collections practices.

The most aggressive enforcer of federal sanctions law may now be New York State. At home and overseas, this could cause a lot of people a lot of problems.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has hired a lobbyist for the force-placed insurance industry as its point man in reforming a market allegedly riddled with industry kickbacks.