Law and regulation

Financial regulators Thursday said they are prepared to take action against banks and other mortgage servicers that don't give the proper help to military homeowners forced to move to a new duty location

For a company with such a good risk management reputation, JPMorgan Chase appears to have made some fairly fundamental mistakes regarding risk in its chief investment office, notes editor-at-large Barbara A. Rehm.

Freddie Mac raised its estimate for 2012 originations to $1.45 trillion in its latest economic and housing market outlook, citing lower expected 30-year rates. Freddie previously had forecast that 2012 would end with a total of just $1.3 trillion in originations.

JPMorgan Chase has decided to step on the bandwagon of megalenders refusing to participate in FHA "streamline" refinancings that are outside of their current servicing portfolios.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested that the Volcker Rule to ban proprietary trading would have helped to prevent the $2 billion credit loss at JPMorgan.

Despite calls by industry trade groups to slow down, the consumer bureau said Wednesday that it will release a consolidated disclosure form by its July 21 deadline.

Following Dodd-Frank mandate, the OCC broadens the applicability for limits on an exposure to one person, and streamlines how limits apply to banks and thrifts.

Hispanic customers of JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo have long been able to pay bills or transfer money online — but only in English. Now both companies are planning to expand their Spanish-language online banking services by early next year.

Kevin Mellyn's "Broken Markets" warns that state suppression of market forces could have lasting consequences. Bankers and policymakers should take heed.

The consumer bureau announced who will be serving as counselor to the CFPB director, general counsel and ombudsman, among other positions.

The Federal Reserve Board has issued an enforcement orders against First Security Bank of Malta in Montana that gives the bank 30 days to become adequately capitalized or sell itself to another institution.

The Financial Stability Board on Tuesday outlined progress, and in some cases weaknesses, of pledges made by countries to adopt tougher capital rules in order to strengthen the global financial system.

After breezing through a Senate hearing last week, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon faced tough questions from members of both parties at a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee.

The Treasury Department plans to auction pools of securities in nearly two-thirds of the banks left in the Troubled Asset Relief Program, its most aggressive move yet to get small banks out of the program.

Richard Hunt, who assumed leadership of the Consumer Bankers Association three years ago as its president, has now been named the chief executive officer for the group.

Financial stocks rose Tuesday after federal housing regulators said they were revising guidelines that could reduce lenders' risks of having to buy back soured mortgages that have been securitized.

Discover Financial Services may be having more success than its peers in getting consumers to revolve balances from month to month — which is where more profits lie.

During the hearing, frequent reference was made to "risk," a word which was, and should still be, anathema in banking, for bankers do not take risks; they only underwrite risks.

As Comptroller Curry discloses concerns about JPMorgan Chase's risk management, lawmakers continue their debates over agency funding, derivatives oversight and other issues of the reform effort.

Consumers will be able to review complaints against individual credit card lenders through a new CFPB database.