Law and regulation

Adopting universal terminology will allow financial institutions to quickly identify, understand and share information about threats, plan for different scenarios and build the systems required to effectively defend their interests.

Although Federal Housing Administration-backed loans showed a downward trickle last year, federal mortgage insurance still makes up a sizeable chunk of the housing market, new government data said Tuesday.

The inspector general of the Federal Housing Finance Agency has pushed the agency to take more oversight over Fannie and Freddie, upending Freddie's mortgage putback practices and drawing out details of a special servicing program.

A group of state attorneys general is investigating how major banks process and sell delinquent credit card accounts.

"The 20% down payment is not part of our proposal," said Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray, in Senate testimony, about the qualified mortgage rule.

Two Citigroup executives are departing after federal prosecutors named them earlier this year in a mortgage-insurance fraud case that resulted in a $158.3 million settlement and an admission of wrongdoing by the bank.

Fannie Mae had little choice but to pay a premium to Bank of America to free up pools of loans so that it could put them in better hands, an inspector general's report finds.

With just three and a half months left until 2013, regulators are under pressure to release a boatload of new regulations, including some of the most contentious items on their plate.

Fanatical insistence on lending to risky borrowers to get them to buy more houses destroyed trillions of dollars. Now there's pressure to make even riskier, unsecured loans to these consumers. A freer, fairer market would do better.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has, as required by Dodd-Frank, appointed members to a board that will consult twice a year with director Richard Cordray. The members range from bank executives to consumer advocates.

ACA International on Monday announced that it has filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in the case of Marx vs. General Revenue Corp.

Echoing elements of the mortgage robo-signing controversy, investigators are looking at whether JPMorgan Chase and other banks botched the documentation and amounts owed on credit card debts they sold.

The Dodd-Frank Act has a champion in Treasury Under Secretary for Domestic Finance Mary Miller. To those who would repeal or roll it back she warns that doing so could lead to another crisis.

As new banking standards come into focus, the debate rages on about whether they will strengthen the financial system or merely bury it in red tape.

Just about every major challenge facing bankers was referenced in American Banker's second Regulatory Symposium, including Basel III, the Volcker Rule, and new CFPB rules. Speakers, including the two top leaders at the FDIC, PNC's Jim Rohr, Rep. Scott Garrett and the Treasury Department's Mary Miller, weighed in with meaty remarks. Following is a list of the top stories from the conference:

Congress has punched traditional bankers in the nose, and if we do nothing in the next 50 days, they will continue this abuse with impunity.

Regulators may be about to crack down on some of the nation's biggest banks for failing to monitor possible unlawful cash transactions.

The Missouri Division of Finance closed the $282.3 million-asset Truman Bank in St. Louis on Friday. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. entered into an agreement with Simmons First National Bank in Pine Bluff, Ark., to buy the bank's assets and assume its $245.7 million in deposits.

A copy of prepared remarks delivered by Under Secretary for Domestic Finance Mary Miller at the American Banker Regulatory Symposium.

The FDIC is trying to help bankers prep for exams and more clearly understand the results as part of a broader effort at improving relations, Martin Gruenberg, the agency's acting Chairman, said.