Law and regulation

Some regulatory agencies appear ripe for criticism or curbs to their authority in the incoming Trump administration, but the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is in position to have its authority expanded.

You'd rather have a heart surgeon who has done a lot of bypasses than a novice, right? Perhaps the same thinking should apply to commercial lenders, according to several university researchers challenging the orthodoxy that making too many of the same kind of loans can only spell doom.

WASHINGTON -- A federal court in California has accepted a controversial request from the IRS to obtain the records of possibly millions of users of the bitcoin exchange Coinbase.

Treasury Secretary-designate Steven Mnuchin's plan to remove Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from government control could mean increased competition for lenders' loans. But it could also prompt a rise in mortgage rates.

Even before taking office, Treasury Secretary-designate Steven Mnuchin has said he wants to return Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the private sector, a radically different vision of housing finance reform than that pushed by other Republicans.

Some regulators have begun to acknowledge that it's time to rethink the regulatory system put in place in the wake of the financial crisis, while others are raising warnings about weakening safeguards.

President-elect Donald Trump recognizes that full repeal of the Dodd-Frank Act is unlikely, though he supports a House effort to make significant changes, according to a former banker who was on the shortlist to be Treasury secretary.

Consumers' providing bank credentials to third-party services is akin to handing over their house keys. To mitigate screen-scraping risks, banks and fintech companies must first address issues related to security, transparency and control.

Treasury Secretary-designate Steven Mnuchin wasted no time Wednesday joining one of the thorniest debates in the financial services arena, saying the Trump administration would seek to end government control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Post-crisis regulations were not only costly but may have undermined executive accountability by turning CEOs into compliance managers instead of drivers of business decisions.

Much like President-elect Donald Trump himself, Treasury Secretary-designate Steven Mnuchin represents something of a question mark for bankers when it comes to his agenda.

President-elect Donald Trump's imminent choice for Commerce secretary is a billionaire investor who swooped in to prop up troubled banks after the financial meltdown. Some members of the banking world, including regulators, may be glad he was picked for Commerce chief instead of Treasury secretary.

Former BB&T Chief Executive Officer John Allison, a top candidate for the next Treasury secretary, reiterated Tuesday that policymakers should consider eliminating or reducing the deposit insurance level.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s third-quarter earnings report was stacked with good news: record earnings and lending, fewer troubled loans and higher interest and noninterest income. Yet there was one statistic that is likely to fuel more calls for help from Washington.

WASHINGTON – The House is expected to vote on a bill this week that would change the way banks are designated as systemically important and subjected to tougher regulatory requirements.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Martin Gruenberg said he would not offer his resignation to President-elect Donald Trump.

Signs point to international regulatory reform having passed its peak, with European regulators delaying policies and agitating against further Basel III rules.

Bill Walton was at the top of Washington's finance establishment when he ran Allied Capital Corp. and sat on the Riggs Bank board alongside the city's titans. Then the trouble began.

The FDIC's Quarterly Banking Profile showed positive signs across the board, including increases in net interest and noninterest income, better loan growth and a drop in noncurrent loans. Overall, 60.8% of banks were profitable — allowing the industry to reach its lowest proportion of unprofitable banks since the third quarter of 1997.

The Internal Revenue Service's petition for information on Coinbase customers is an overreach that should concern Americans regardless of whether they use bitcoin.