Joe Adler

Although they stood united in an effort to delay pending interchange rules, bankers and credit unions once again turned against each other Thursday, this time over a bill to expand business lending.

WASHINGTON - Although lawmakers have taken regulators to the wood shed several times over the past year for cracking down too hard on healthy small banks, the situation is clearly not getting any better.

While bankers are busy protesting planned additions to the pending Basel III capital regime, regulators are still arguing over the current Basel II standards.

WASHINGTON — While regulators followed through Tuesday on a mandate to set an across-the-board capital floor, they signaled that bigger — and still-contentious — discussions lie ahead on more meaningful capital changes.

Sens. Jon Tester and Dick Durbin trade swipes at each other after a proposal to delay the Fed's interchange fee cap is defeated; how does 'Senator' Elizabeth Warren sound?

With regulators struggling to decide which loans to excuse from risk-retention, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair said Thursday the best option would have been to shelve the exemption altogether.

Although banks failed in their attempt to convince Congress to delay an interchange fee cap for debit cards, the financial services industry is not giving up, just changing venues.

In a nail-biting conclusion after weeks of fierce lobbying by bankers and retailers, the Senate defeated a bill Wednesday that would have delayed the Federal Reserve Board's proposal to cap interchange fees for debit cards.

Washington insiders estimate Sens. Jon Tester and Bob Corker are still a few colleagues short of the 60-vote threshold needed to delay a cap on debit-card swipe fees. But their compromise bill announced yesterday — shortening the delay to a year from 15 months and making enough substantive regulatory changes so Congress may not have to revisit the issue in the future — has shifted enough momentum the industry's way to put some of the fence-sitters within reach.

The White House announced late Monday that Austan Goolsbee will step down as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.

Banks appeared to be gaining the upper hand in their battle against retailers to delay pending interchange fee caps, but the fight was far from over.

The closure Friday of the $208 million-asset Atlantic Bank and Trust in Charleston, S.C., was estimated to cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. $36 million.

The closure Friday of the $208 million-asset Atlantic Bank and Trust in Charleston, S.C., was estimated to cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. $36 million.

While regulators have said Congress meant for the QRM to be a narrow category of super-safe loans, the industry and consumer groups fundamentally do not see it that way, arguing that it will in effect be the new normal that shuts out or penalizes other creditworthy borrowers.

While regulators have said Congress meant for the QRM to be a narrow category of super-safe loans, the industry and consumer groups fundamentally do not see it that way.

Mortgage bankers and consumer advocates showed a united front Thursday against a proposed down-payment requirement in a new special class of mortgages, saying it will push the market too far in favor of the wealthy.

Mortgage lenders and consumer advocates, two lobbies usually busy opposing each other, have joined forces to urge regulators to ease up on proposed risk-retention requirements that they say will result in a credit crunch.

Turns out it's a lot more fun to watch the financial crisis on HBO than actually live through it; Rep. McHenry's Facebook page gets bombarded by Warren defenders.

Turns out it's a lot more fun to watch the financial crisis on HBO than actually live through it; Rep. McHenry's Facebook page gets bombarded by Warren defenders.

A bipartisan group of senators is calling on regulators to expand their proposed exemption from risk-retention rules mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act.