Law and regulation

MasterCard is asking the European Union's highest court to overturn an EU decision that the company's cross-border card fees breach antitrust rules.

The Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight said Monday that it has hired secondary consulting firms to assist BDO Consulting in overseeing compliance of the five largest mortgage servicers with the $25 billion national servicing settlement.

Banks appear to be effectively using a government program to help struggling borrowers refinance their underwater mortgages in order to make monthly payments more manageable.

The inspector generals for two agencies concluded that neither improperly leaked draft copies of the Volcker Rule to American Banker.

Knight Capital Group Inc.'s search for investors in the wake of a $440 million loss demonstrates why the biggest Wall Street banks shouldn't be broken up, according to Brad Hintz, a Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst.

Working on your wish list for Dodd-Frank repeals? Mark A. Calabria, the director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute, has Section 1071, which requires a system for tracking data on lending to women-owned and minority owned small business, on his.

Despite the low number of prosecutions under Sarbanes-Oxley, crimes committed by banks have been punished with big fines. Too bad that's not enough to keep them from offending again.

Standard Chartered Plc conducted $250 billion worth of transactions with Iranian entities over more than seven years in violation of federal money laundering laws, a New York regulator said in an order warning that its U.S. unit may be suspended from doing business in the state.

Swiss banks must lure affluent clients from emerging markets or face a "slow death" as the pursuit of tax dodgers by U.S. and European authorities results in outflows of assets, industry officals and investors said.

Economists are looking beyond the usual data points like consumer spending, disposable income, and household wealth to measure economic progress. Social ties and perceived upward mobility matter just as much, according to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.

London equals weak regulation. Self-regulation equals self-interested regulation. Libor is set in London, by banks, through self-regulation. Why all the shock and outrage when banks set it to suit themselves?

Valerie Soranno Keating, the head of Barclays' global card operations, weighs in on mobile payments, the differences between the U.S. and U.K. markets and the importance of working with regulators.

Rep. Scott Garrett and Sen. David Vitter have introduced bills that would that "would repeal the government's authority to designate non-bank financial institutions as systemically important," writes American Banker’s Kevin Wack.

Illinois state regulators closed $88.9 million-asset Waukegan Savings Bank, the fortieth failure of the year nationwide and the sixth in the state.

A fund for penalties collected by the CFPB has its first $25 million, and lots of people are waiting to see how it will be spent.

The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee is urging federal banking regulators to extend the comment deadline on Basel III capital reforms for another 90 days to give bankers more time to digest the rules and better assess their impact.

Simply stated, merchants have agreed the Visa/MasterCard interchange fee settlement resolves all past disputes and establishes a system that will govern payments in the future. Nothing remains for Congress, or anyone else, to address.

Bankers have called Elizabeth Warren a host of names, mostly in private, but Sarah Palin went a step further when speaking on Fox News.

Hungary’s antitrust regulator confirmed that it’s investigating alleged abuses by MasterCard Inc. over the company’s dominant position on the interbank market.

Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi took another swing this week at Andrew Ross Sorkin, the CNBC anchor, for not pushing Sandy Weill on his change of heart regarding breaking up big banks.