Law and regulation

The Federal Reserve Board entered into a written agreement with Cornerstone Bancorp that requires the St. Petersburg, Fla., company to serve as a source of strength for its bank.

The Clearing House made the case for big banks' "social utility," arguing that banking behemoths pay dividends in efficiency, flexibility, and innovation.

WASHINGTON — The heads of two key banking trade associations on Friday repeated their calls for Congress to extend the Transaction Account Guarantee program.

The directors of the newly created Offices of Women and Minority Inclusion recently submitted their first reports to Congress. These reports show a good start, but also illustrate how much remains to be done.

Sovereign Bank defeated an overdraft fee lawsuit in Florida federal court on Thursday, making it the only bank to successfully argue its overdraft practices were sanctioned by federal regulators.

A joint effort by U.S. and international standards-setters to write rules on loss provisioning hits a speed bump just as an SEC report shows the broader aim of a truly global accounting regime is still far-off.

The Federal Reserve Board on July 27 approved a final rule that amends the provisions in its debit-pricing rule that permit debit card issuers subject to the interchange fee standards under the Durbin amendment to Dodd-Fank to receive a fraud-prevention adjustment.

Preston M. "Pete" Geren 3rd, a former secretary of the Army and U.S. lawmaker, recently joined the board of Texas Capital Bancshares in Dallas.

A rambling question from Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner bears an uncomfortable resemblance to an old "Saturday Night Live" sketch.

Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup were among the largest clients of firms whose products led to a $210 million settlement between Capital One and federal regulators.

Wal-Mart balks at card settlement; analyst praises bad customer service at Wells Fargo; Sandy Weill, empire-builder, calls for dismantling of empires.

Capital One will pay $12 million to thousands of military customers it overcharged for loans and improperly foreclosed upon, as part of a settlement with the Department of Justice and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Beth Mooney believes regional banks have a competitive advantage against their largest competitors given the "onerous" compliance requirements for $1 trillion-asset banks under the Dodd-Frank Act.

Regulators implementing Dodd-Frank met with big banks nearly 1,300 times in the past two years, but held only 242 meetings with reform-oriented organizations, according to a report from the Sunlight Foundation.

Sens. Orrin Hatch and Jerry Moran are accusing the Treasury Department of inappropriately using Twitter and Facebook to push the Obama administration's priorities on Capitol Hill.

The Treasury secretary said Thursday that an extension of the crisis-era program, which remains popular with community banks, appears to be unnecessary.

Capital One will pay $12 million to military customers it overcharged for loans, as part of a settlement with the Justice Dept. and the OCC.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has expanded the global reach of its payment cards while also preparing to provide new technology to clients in the Single Euro Payments Area who will soon deal with far more cross-border payments.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. urged bank CEOs to watch out for middlemen seeking upfront fees to connect them with capital because, it says, many are frauds. The alert should have come sooner, some industry officials say.

As the HSBC hearings demonstrate, there's a growing expectation that individuals, not just institutions, will be held accountable. Recent enforcement actions also show a more risk-based, rather than rules-based, approach.