Law and regulation

Wal-Mart and Target have vocally opposed the card networks' proposed multi-billion dollar interchange fee settlement, but even these giants may not have the influence to spike the agreement.

You should be able to move your money as fast as you can make it. But the banking system today works about as speedily as the Post Office.

Fed Gov. Sarah Bloom Raskin urged regulators to narrow a potential loophole in the Volcker Rule that would allow some banks to bypass the ban on proprietary trading.

Use eminent domain to refinance unaffordable mortgages, cut through the mire of servicers, home equity investors and trustees. Protect homeownership and communities while respecting everyone's property rights.

It was an insanely busy week in Washington last week, as the CFPB took its first enforcement action, regulators finally designated nonbank systemically important companies and Dodd-Frank turned two. Here were the stories you shouldn't miss:

Consumers who might feel taken advantage of by con artists who claim they'll hope lower or resolve debts if an advance fee is paid might take some comfort in learning that troubled banks are falling for a similar scam.

Wal-Mart said that it takes issue with the multi-billion dollar swipe-fee settlement the card networks proposed this month.

Jim Purcell, chief executive officer of State National Bank of Big Spring, spoke during one of the hearings House Republicans organized to examine Dodd-Frank’s impact. But he "had a hard time answering certain questions from Democrats," writes American Banker’s Kevin Wack.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is urging colleges to adopt a new form designed to make it easier for students to compare financial aid offers.

The order against Capital One last week differed from how the banking regulators act in several key ways.

The U.S. regulator overseeing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks has hired a consulting firm to create contingency plans for taking the mortgage-finance firms into receivership, according to contract documents.

Recessions do not cause bank failures. It is banks causing booms that cause recessions that cause banks to fail.

Billed as a discussion of the Dodd-Frank Act's second anniversary, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's testimony this week in Congress is instead expected to focus primarily on alleged manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate.

Last year, Citi began processing check and automated clearing house transactions in order from the lowest dollar amount to the highest, a move that minimizes the potential for overdrafts. Today, it wants to make sure consumers — and perhaps regulators — haven't forgotten.

The Basel capital accords are a serious policy mistake. It's time to return to financial supervision that relies on good judgment and on-site examinations.

A survey commissioned by the Center for Responsible Lending, Americans for Financial Reform, the AARP and the National Council of La Raza "found that 73% of voters, including both Republicans and Democrats, favor the Dodd-Frank Act and 66% of voters favored the creation of the CFPB," writes American Banker’s Victoria Finkle

The 2008 crisis bruised nonfinancial companies that rely on the markets to raise money and hedge risk. Take it from consumer goods makers — global standards like LEI will make doing business easier, in good times and bad.

Two banks owned by Mercantile Bancorp in Quincy, Ill., were among five failures on Friday, one of the busiest nights for closures in recent weeks.

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The New York Senator is asking the FDIC to extend credit to a troubled ski resort after its primary lender failed.