Dodd-Frank

How the central bank will apply bank-centered rules to systemically important financial institutions is one of the biggest unanswered questions of the post-financial crisis regulatory system.

Steven Antonakes, the CFPB's deputy director, gave a speech which indicated the agency has shifted to a hard-line stance regarding compliance with a new mortgage servicing rule that went into effect last month. "Business as usual has ended in the mortgage servicing industry," he said.

Pressured by overseas governments and institutions, the Fed nevertheless stayed the course in finalizing tough new rules for roughly 100 foreign banks doing business in the U.S. — a sign that the central bank's emphasis remains on national stability over international cooperation.

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is allowing the public an extra month to weigh in on the agency's strategic plan for unwinding failed behemoths.

The Federal Reserve Board is set to alter its strategy for supervising foreign banks in the U.S., making it somewhat less onerous for smaller global institutions.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's recent risk management proposal is tougher than institutions expected and would give the agency greater leeway to punish a firm it feels is not up to snuff.

It took a few hours for lawmakers to ask the perennial question to Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen that is apparently required for every regulator testifying on Capitol Hill: Did the Dodd-Frank Act end "too big to fail"?

Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J. skipped peppering Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on monetary policy on Tuesday, focusing instead on a critical role that has remained left unfilled on the board: a formal overseer of bank regulation.

The collateralized loan market has backed off of deals involving bonds until lawmakers and regulators address the Volcker Rule's impact on such instruments. Most hope for clarification or grandfathering to stave off a massive sell-off.

Banks are looking at a regulatory plan to dramatically expand the data collected on mortgages as a potential ally in their battle to ease separate rules that they say will curb access to credit.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is weighing whether to vastly increase the data collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act in an effort to better monitor trends and abuses in the market.

During a House Financial Services Committee hearing featuring top regulatory officials, lawmakers repeatedly returned to the question of whether the five agencies involved in writing the Volcker Rule can enforce it consistently across the various entities they oversee.

While it is undoubtedly possible to create standalone institutions that can weather almost any financial storm, the capital and liquidity levels of those institutions will seriously limit their usefulness as engines of economic growth.

The Senate is poised to vote on a massive, five-year farm bill this week that includes several provisions important for community bankers and agricultural lenders.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said a financial services model for the U.S. Postal Service -- proposed in a recent inspector general's report -- should be considered in light of high costs facing the underserved.

Without naming names, the CFPB said in a report released Thursday that, based on its examinations, servicers made borrowers jump through hoops to qualify for loan modifications and were lax about maintaining accurate records.

Regulators are signing bilateral MOUs and advancing strategies meant to avoid ring-fencing, but some say more binding pacts should govern cross-border resolutions.

President Obama hit on several important issues for bankers in his annual address to Congress Tuesday night, including mortgage finance reform, though as expected financial services issues largely took a backseat to other national concerns, like unemployment and the minimum wage.

Richard Cordray, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's normally unflappable director, reacted angrily Tuesday to suggestions by lawmakers that he and his agency do not care about borrowers who purchase manufactured housing.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a three-page advisory Monday in response to recent card and data breaches, encouraging consumers to monitor their accounts for unauthorized charges or debits.