Dodd-Frank

An obscure provision in the regulatory relief bill championed by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., is giving mutual holding companies hope that a threat to their business model will be eliminated.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including the merits and drawbacks of Sen. Richard Shelby's regulatory reform legislation, whether bigger banks are inherently riskier and banks' evolving interest in blockchain technology.

American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. Comments are excerpted from reader response sections of AmericanBanker.com articles and from our social media platforms.

Lawmakers on the Senate Banking Committee may still stand divided on regulatory reform, but Thursday's markup points to ongoing desire for a way forward.

The Senate Banking Committee approved a broad regulatory reform bill Thursday on party lines, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle vowing to continue negotiations this summer.

Despite strong rhetoric from both sides that legislative action is needed to help community banks, Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee remain divided in their approaches ahead of a markup Thursday.

The proposed legislation for regulatory relief seeks to roll back critical mortgage protections put in place to prevent another housing crisis.

Critics of the regulatory relief bill proposed by Sen. Richard Shelby argue that will endanger the financial system and benefit big banks. But in fact, the changes offer sensible, nonpartisan fixes to some of the biggest problems with the Dodd-Frank Act.

Lost in the debate so far over Shelby's regulatory relief bill are the significant changes it makes to the housing finance system. It essentially takes consensus elements from multiple past stabs at reform, leaving out the most controversial parts and making future reform far easier.

The U.S. financial system has weathered several external threats in the past year, but significant hazards remain, including the potential for cyberattacks and excessive concentration of risk in central counterparties, according to a report by the Financial Stability Oversight Council.

Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee unveiled legislation Tuesday to rival a plan by the panel's GOP chairman, signaling that the partisan divide over regulatory reform isn't likely to soften ahead of a panel markup later this week.

It's a good idea to raise the asset threshold at which financial institutions are automatically designated as systemically important financial institutions. But Sen. Richard Shelby's proposed legislation for regulatory relief does require one crucial change.

The regulatory relief package coming before the Senate Banking Committee Thursday would force the Federal Housing Finance Agency to withdraw the contentious proposal within 30 days.

No bank has fully disclosed what it spends on the Federal Reserve's Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review, in part because the figure is hard to isolate. It's a key piece of information missing in the debate over banks' regulatory burden.

Crucial operational steps remain before the government could clean up the collapse of a massive firm without threats to the broader financial system.

Banking and credit union trade groups sent a joint letter Friday urging members of the Senate Banking Committee to move forward on bipartisan regulatory relief legislation ahead of a markup next week.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including the financial inequalities exposed by the Baltimore riots and whether the changes to Dodd-Frank proposed in Sen. Richard Shelby's regulatory relief plan go too far.

So far, Washington has generally smiled on tech-driven lenders such as Lending Club and OnDeck. But many in the fast-growing industry are now bracing for closer scrutiny.

WASHINGTON — Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke is pushing back against a bipartisan proposal to rein in the agency's emergency lending powers.

Sen. Richard Shelby's attempt to reform Dodd-Frank could ease key bank regulations that improve the safety and soundness of big banks. That would be an immense disservice to the American taxpayers who might bear the cost of the changes with future bailouts.