Dodd-Frank

The elections on Nov. 4 are expected to be "the most expensive" mid-term race in history, with banks hoping for Republican control of the Senate in the hopes of enacting some regulatory relief. Following are how much the financial services industry has given and who they've given it to.

The mid-term elections next month are on track to be one of the most expensive contests to date, and the financial services industry remains a top political donor.

WASHINGTON — Risks posed by rising interest rates are once again a top theme in stress test scenarios released by the Federal Reserve Board on Thursday.

Small banks and credit unions should work together to put pressure on legislators and regulators to reduce unnecessary and cumbersome regulations.

The Volcker Rule's data-intensive requirements are creating headaches for banks that still rely on manual processes and use multiple, disparate systems for securities and different derivatives trading.

WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve Board and Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday both signed off on an interagency rule requiring securitizers to hold 5% of the credit risk on loans sold to investors.

The risk retention rule unveiled Tuesday was hailed by the industry for its definition of a "qualified residential mortgage," but analysts say a comeback for private-label securitization still faces huge obstacles.

The GSE regulator's second attempt to stimulate the mortgage market is receiving a lukewarm reception from lenders, who remain gun-shy after being forced by Fannie and Freddie to repurchase billions of dollars in soured loans since 2008.

The SEC's mammoth whistleblower bounty offers a reminder that financial institutions should emphasize a culture of compliance and transparency, lest frustrated employees head to the government to find an audience that will listen.

Concerns still remain among community bankers that examiners could push individual community banks to undergo stress tests, even if the agencies refuse to make it mandatory.

Regulators are finally ready to unveil a final risk retention rule, but whether the new regulation provides enough certainty to jumpstart the securitization market is an open question.

John Ikard, a Colorado bank CEO and incoming chairman of the American Bankers Association, hopes to score a few legislative victories on behalf of bankers, who he says have spent years on the defensive.

The Federal Reserve Board issued a final rule Friday that will give banks an additional three months to comply with stress test requirements.

Congress and banking agencies should seize the opportunity to eliminate unnecessary and outdated requirements.

A regulatory report released this summer helped fuel hopes that banks were finally beginning to loosen up on making mortgage loans. But since then strategists say there is no evidence that an easing of credit standards is taking place.

Politicians must acknowledge the unintentionally harmful consequences of the Dodd-Frank Act, while bankers need to accept that the financial system has deficiencies and act to remedy the problems under their control.

A principles document on corporate governance from the international Basel Committee is another sign of supervisors' mounting interest in how management culture affects business decisions.

Regulators will unveil a long-awaited final rule next week that requires lenders to retain some of the risk for loans they securitize in the secondary market, a critical part of the Dodd-Frank Act that the agencies have struggled to implement.

Unless regulators coordinate their efforts to reform banks' home lending, mortgage servicing and remittance businesses, American consumers will continue to lose access to affordable financial services.

Before regulators require the country's largest banks to take on more burdensome regulations, they need to reconsider the parameters used to assess the threat of systemic risk.