Law and regulation

In a recent report the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau provided details about its consumer complaint database. In its first year of operation 43% of the complaints the agency has received have been about mortgages and 34% were about credit cards.

New York's financial-services regulator has grounds to shut Standard Chartered in the state even if he accepts the firm's argument that it illegally laundered only a fraction of the $250 billion he claims.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a proposal Friday that would require mortgage servicers to provide clear monthly statements, earlier disclosures for interest rate adjustments and options to help borrowers avoid foreclosures and costly force-placed insurance.

Housing activists and other progressives pushed the president Thursday to oust Edward DeMarco and to dedicate more resources to investigating the run-up to the 2008 crisis.

Stories about buyout groups dissolving and heavy-handed regulation make private equity sound like the dog that never barked in banking. But such firms have notched hundreds of deals since the crisis, and the rollup machines they've created are poised to keep going.

Consumer advocates and financial services industry officials clashed Thursday over whether banks and insurers are getting paid fairly in the force-placed insurance market.

The Federal Reserve Board has terminated a written agreement with Coastal Financial that required the Everett, Wash., company to improve asset quality and risk management.

Google has changed the rules about how issuers get into its mobile wallet, and American Express is the first to vocally and vehemently oppose Google's new setup. The outcome of this dispute could decide who controls transaction data in mobile payments.

The agency used a cross-guaranty liability agreement to receive 85% of the proceeds from a Kansas Bank's sale to Arvest Bank in Arkansas. The deal is notable to companies with multiple banks, particularly those that are undercapitalized.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission may propose allowing swaps between a financial company's affiliates to be exempt from rules designed to reduce risk in the market, three people briefed on the matter said.

The judge overseeing the Visa/MasterCard swipe fee dispute will not approve the settlement until the second half of 2013. In the interim, this deal must get through numerous hurdles.

Southwest Bancorp (OKSB) in Stillwater, Okla., has repurchased all of the $70 million in preferred securities it sold to the Treasury Department under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The agency is desperately trying to avoid a bailout this year by settling disputes with major banks for cash, selling severely delinquent loans and raising insurance premiums for new borrowers.

Standard Chartered CEO Peter Sands hit back at a New York regulator's claims the bank broke U.S. sanctions, and said he saw "no grounds" for revoking the lender's license.

Jeffrey Kutler, editor-in-chief of Risk Professional magazine, isn’t surprised that bankers have balked at new regulation. But if there’s still debate about whether or not the Volcker Rule would have prevented JPMorgan's trading losses in the London office “what does that imply about the overall quality of the reform effort?” he asks.

A veteran who served in Afghanistan has filed a class-action lawsuit alleging Bank of America threatened to foreclose on his home and violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.

Jeff Gerhart, the chairman and CEO of Nebraska's Bank of Newman Grove, is trying to help farmers with drought issues while also tackling concerns over Basel III rules and implementation for the Independent Community Bankers of America.

Bank lobbying groups have been pushing for an extension of the Transaction Account Guarantee program that would continue to make FDIC coverage for all transaction accounts mandatory. "But prior to Dodd-Frank, the original TAG — which regulators created in 2008 to strengthen liquidity — was voluntary and charged participants extra fees to opt in,” writes American Banker’s Joe Adler.

There is a growing debate over how much detail a bank should have to disclose to regulators about the money it sets aside to cover losses stemming from lawsuits.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., showed further signs he could be a 'nay' if Congress voted on extending the Transaction Account Guarantee program.