Joe Adler

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.

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

With just over a month left before she leaves the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Chairman Sheila Bair spent one of her last Congressional hearings trying to convince skeptical Republicans that "too big to fail" has finally been eliminated.

On its face, the FDIC's report on bank earnings in the first quarter was nearly all good news: net income at precrisis levels combined with higher capital and fewer troubled loans. But there was a darker side to the Quarterly Banking Profile that signaled bank profits may not be sustainable.

The banking industry had its best quarter since the start of the financial crisis, earning $29 billion in the first three months of the year thanks to the continued drop in loan-loss provisions, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Tuesday.

WASHINGTON — Months after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. revamped its large-bank assessment system, banks are urging the agency to revisit new reporting requirements stemming from the plan.