Law and regulation

The Government Accountability Office put new pressure on the agency to make a decision after months of foot-dragging.

Regulators are taking a hard look at payday lending practices, and that could give banks an unprecedented edge over storefront operators.

Merchants may feel overwhelmed at the abundance of new payment technologies, and they are understandably worried about investing in the wrong one. Terminal vendors are hoping to address those fears.

In a report released Thursday, the Government Accountability Office flagged concerns about the rising use of appraisal management companies as well as the government's oversight of the appraisal industry.

PNC Bank reached a $90 million settlement this week in a class-action lawsuit over excessive overdraft fees, the latest of several big banks to do so.

Though loan competition remains fierce, most banks are unwilling to relax their underwriting policies until the economy heals.

Much time and energy was spent on a campaign to regulate an optional service consumers could avoid paying for. Meanwhile, mortgage securitization was going gangbusters. Priorities were perhaps misplaced.

A government watchdog has found that the Federal Home Loan banks increasingly turned to offering short-term, unsecured credit to financial institutions exposed to the turmoil in Europe as their own core business dwindled.

The Treasury Department will receive roughly $204 million from its latest auctions selling off the preferred shares of seven financial institutions from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

John C. Dugan, former comptroller of the currency, and T. Timothy Ryan Jr., former director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, insist that, despite some recent assertions to the contrary, the Dodd-Frank Act really does put end to the too-big-to-fail status of big banks.

During the boom, accounting rules kept banks from building thicker buffers against losses. This left them in a weaker position when the crisis hit. It's time to fix the mistake.

Dodd-Frank-required study finds borrowers are younger and seniors are increasingly taking out bigger loans.

In a startling report, the FHFA's inspector general said that the Home Loan banks extended credit to firms on the brink of failure, in part to make up for declining advances.

Seven months after it was created through the merger of Nara Bancorp and Center Financial, BBCN (BBCN) Bancorp in Los Angeles has repaid the funds its two predecessor companies received from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The House took a key step June 27 toward passing bipartisan legislation that would end a rash of lawsuits over missing ATM fee disclosure signs.

Dubious stress test results? External auditors who fail to flag insolvency in advance? The U.S. and U.K. have seen this film before.

The measure, which the bank industry is seeking to end a spate of lawsuits over missing fee-disclosure signs on ATMs, is now on a path to speedy passage by the House.

Unlike last summer, deposit levels have been relatively stable recently as the euro crisis has reached a new crescendo. Either the most nervous money has already fled to the shelter of the bank safety net, or tensions are only just building.

Banks and government agencies face several problems with their plans to rent out their backlog of foreclosed homes, especially if they try to securitize those rentals, according to Morningstar Credit Ratings.

From the CFPB to the FSOC to New York's ban on large soda cups, followers of behavioral theory have gone overboard in their rabid enthusiasm for governmental manipulation.