BankThink

A new paper dredges up a tired argument against the Community Reinvestment Act, which played an important role in sustainably expanding home lending to many Americans. Let's move on already.

If a regulator overreaches its stautory authority, fails to adequately weigh costs against benefits or tries to hold the bank to arbitrary or capricious standards, you've got a case.

The ill-conceived tax act is in direct conflict with many foreign laws, and would be another hammer blow to America's fragile economy since it would dramatically reduce foreign investments.

Breaking News This Morning ...Earnings: JPMorgan, Bank of New York Mellon, Comerica, M&T, Northern Trust, U.S. Bancorp, Goldman Sachs

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board of directors approved stricter appraisal requirements for higher-cost mortgages with the release of a final rule on Tuesday. Federal regulators have also expanded the types of loans that will be exempt from the new standards.

Regulatory changes to the 1099-B, 1099-K and 1042-S forms, intended to help reduce the $450 billion tax gap, will make it much more difficult to avoid penalties and tricky customer service issues.

If the JPMorgan Chase board docks CEO Jamie Dimon's compensation only for the London Whale’s trading loss, he should consider himself fortunate that they are so myopic.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...JPM's Parking Tickets: The Fed and OCC hit JPMorgan Chase with enforcement actions related to last year's $6 billion trading loss and inadequate anti-money laundering controls. The orders include no monetary fines or admission of wrongdoing, just remediation steps (wryly summed up by the FT's Alphaville blog: "Look into my eyes: you will implement the Action Plan.") Then again, as one journalist tweeted while the news was disseminating Monday afternoon, "in all fairness, I think the initial monetary penalty of $6 billion was plenty." Also, regulators left the door open to further action, and there are reportedly pending investigations of the trading loss from the U.K. Financial Services Authority, and in the U.S. from the SEC, CFTC and Sen. Carl Levin's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. On Wednesday, the bank is expected to release an internal report criticizing management's handling of the London Whale debacle, and, as earlier reported, bonuses are likely to be cut for CEO Jamie Dimon and former CFO (now vice chairman) Doug Braunstein. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Washington Post

The Basel III liquidity plan is the latest case of a global rule hostile to local realities.

In a speech at a California Bankers Association conference on Friday, Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry said regulators are close to completing the 'Volcker' trading ban and securitization rules.