Jeff Horwitz

Bankers defended force-placed insurance practices and dodged questions about alleged industry kickbacks and price gouging at a private but well-attended meeting hosted by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

The FHFA has yet to post to its website any public comments related to a proposed ban on commissions and reinsurance agreements in force-placed insurance. So we're posting some obtained from key voices in the industry and government.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is considering reforms to force-placed insurance aimed at giving the public a better deal. So why isn't it letting the public in on its planning?

Banks are behind many of the faulty or nonexistent records that lead collections companies to erroneously demand debt repayments. That was a key message from regulators, consumer advocates and collections insiders at a Thursday panel.

New York's Department of Financial Services has reached a deal with several small specialty insurance carriers, triggering a statewide ban on force-placed insurance payments to banks.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Laundering Charged: The creators of Liberty Reserve, a cross-border virtual currency exchange, have been arrested and charged with laundering $6 billion. That's "what prosecutors believe to be the largest online money-laundering case in history," the Times reports, with the word "online" being key. $6 billion is 0.9% of what HSBC allegedly failed to control the transmission of between 2006 and 2009, leading to a $1.9 billion fine.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is revising his allegations of foreclosure settlement violations by Wells Fargo (WFC) and Bank of America (BAC), resetting the clock on his plans to sue the banks over 339 alleged servicing violations.

In a sign of renewed pressure on mortgage servicers, a number of big banks have ceased or dramatically slowed the final step in the foreclosure process.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's focus on discrimination in the auto loan business will likely force the banks it targets to stop paying bonuses to car dealers that originate high-interest loans. Changing practices in the rest of the industry could prove tougher.

Consumer advocates believe the bounties banks pay to car dealers for steering customers to high-interest loans are abusive. But with a ban likely to spark a political backlash, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is instead seeking to prove the markups are discriminatory.

New York's Attorney General charged Bank of America and Wells Fargo with hundreds of cases of failure to comply with the national mortgage servicing settlement recently. The claims made for lots headlines but may prove a non-starter in court.

California accused JPMorgan of illegal tactics to sue thousands of credit card borrowers behind on their debts, including "robo-signing."

Operations Risk has become a buzzword among bankers and regulators lately. Unfortunately, repackaging mainstream management duties as a discrete discipline could do more harm than good.

The government must act to reform Fannie and Freddie before the refinancing boom comes to a close, says the president of the Mortgage Bankers Association. Even without legislative action, policymakers can improve oversight and invite private insurance capital back into the market.

New York's attorney general blasted Wells Fargo and Bank of America for "flagrantly" disregarding their promises to help homeowners under last year's 49-state mortgage servicing pact.

Wells Fargo and Bank of America have serially violated the terms of the National Mortgage Servicing Settlement, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman alleged on Monday.

To avoid unwanted scrutiny from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other regulators, banks need to start thinking about "what is fair, not just what is legal," banking attorneys say.

Regulators' plans to force banks to consider a borrower's ability to repay small-dollar, short-term advances on their direct deposits and limit the frequency of borrowing would likely upend current business practices.

The settlement, which follows an earlier deal with market leader Assurant, will prevent the insurers from giving banks commissions, free services, and reinsurance deals in order to win their business.

The Pittsburgh company's incoming chief executive, Bill Demchak, promised to follow the strategy laid out by current CEO Jim Rohr and avoid a race to the bottom for commercial loans.