Law and regulation

Bank of America has ceased selling all payment protection plans to credit card customers, killing off a business line targeted by regulators.

It's foolhardy to try to read traders' minds to determine if the inventory they are keeping exceeds the demand they expect from clients. There is a better way.

Friends of Traditional Banking, a SuperPAC created by a group of state associations last spring, has narrowed its sights to seven races — and is hoping more community banks will join it as it decides what two candidates it should support.

Royal Bank of Scotland is being probed by the Federal Reserve and Justice Department for potentially violating sanctions against Iran, two people briefed on the talks said.

The Federal Reserve did not object to a revised capital plan from Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) that included a potential divided increase and repurchase of common stock.

The effects of a loose monetary policy were compounded by housing policy – not just the "affordable" housing goals set for Fannie and Freddie but also CRA quotas imposed on banks.

When bankers heard that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney had selected Paul Ryan as his running mate, most likely cheered the news. The Wisconsin congressman is, after all, the Capitol Hill antithesis of Barney Frank. He's the Republicans' standard-bearer for limited government in all its forms and has gone into greater depth than anyone else in his party in laying out a plan for limiting it.

When credit card issuers find their portfolios aren't living up to expectation or within the strategy they set for them, they often put them up for sale. Could debit card issuers do the same?

The SEC announced that it has made its first award in a whistleblower program under Dodd-Frank, a Wall Street Journal blog post reports.

Although Republicans appear open to a bill that would make it easier for borrowers to refinance their mortgages, Democrats are balking at requests that the legislation also include measures to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, among other things.

Central bank policy rates, overnight unsecured borrowing rates, commercial paper rates, Treasury bills and repo rates all would be open to potential manipulation, just like Libor.

Bank of America has ceased selling all payment protection plans to credit card customers, killing off a business line targeted by regulators.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. next Tuesday will release its latest quarterly update on earnings, loan growth and other indicators for the entire banking industry.

If the Shazam electronic funds transfer network had its way, smart cards issued with EMV chips would require a single PIN that would both open the chip and route the transaction for settlement. But "that's still under discussion," an exec says.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency took another step to alleviate burden on borrowers struggling with their mortgage payments.

Regulatory agencies have jointly proposed new standards, required by Dodd-Frank, for mortgage appraisals. But many of the standards “have largely already been adopted by the industry, observers said, due to the fallout from the housing crisis,” write American Banker’s Joe Adler and Kate Berry.

Yes, megabanks provide useful, all-in-one services. But their biggest customers challenge the argument that they need financial behemoths to operate globally.

Yes, megabanks provide useful, all-in-one services. But their biggest customers challenge the argument that financial behemoths should be held together for their sake.

Big businesses' mixed feelings about their large bank partners are especially obvious when the conversation turns to proposed reforms of money-market funds, which corporate treasurers say could increase the power of "too big to fail" banks.

A federal charter for National Consumer Credit Corporations could help community bankers serve (and profit off) low-to-moderate-income consumers.