Law and regulation

A small Florida bank has refused to sign an enforcement order that would require it to beef up its capital reserves and reduce its risk, and now its state regulator is asking the courts to step in.

The General Court in Luxembourg Thursday upheld a 2007 European Commission ban on MasterCard Europe's cross-border multilateral interchange fees levied on retailers' debit and credit card transactions. Its decision could have consequences for the U.S.

The CFPB issued a proposal Thursday laying out the steps it will take to designate certain nonbanks for supervision if they pose a risk to consumers.

Certain loans were well underwritten and structured, and are underperforming now solely because of job losses. Drastic approaches like modifications and refis are unnecessary to help these ordinarily creditworthy homeowners.

With profits rising to a "post-crisis high," the FDIC says loan balances fell in the first quarter. But with banks selling off loans and balances affected by seasonal factors, the direction of lending growth is unclear.

Traditionally Americans have opposed the establishment of single governmental body with jurisdiction over all aspects of the financial system. Instead we have favored a decentralized system with different regulatory agencies for different types of financial activities and institutions.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s threshold for what constitutes larger participant status in the debt collection industry, based on gross annual receipts, is considered too low by ACA International and DBA International.

A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in Erie, Pa. refused to dismiss a complaint filed by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office against Michael J. Covatto, the former president of Unicredit America Inc., a now-defunct debt collection agency.

With Dodd-Frank and a sluggish economy as background, M&A experts met in New York earlier this week and shared insights into the future of bank deal-making.

Plans to unify mortgage securities issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been top of mind at several events this month, as the mortgage industry works to jumpstart the securities market in the wake of the financial crisis.

Everyone in Washington is talking about JPMorgan Chase's botched hedge. Everyone, that is, but the federal regulators in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency who actually know what's going on.

If JPMorgan Chase's trading blowup raised worries about booby traps at other financial giants, it might be comforting to know that its securities portfolio is more complex — and perhaps trickier to hedge — than those of rival megabanks.

Dodd-Frank establishes U.S. financial stability as a critical hurdle for regulators to evaluate before approving future mergers and acquisitions.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority on Tuesday fined Citigroup Global Markets Inc. $3.5 million in a settlement related to charges of nonconforming residential mortgage-backed securities violations that Citi neither admitted to nor denied.

Bank of America will buy back $330 million of home mortgages from Freddie Mac because the bank did not get full appraisals on some properties, raising concerns that some newly originated loans are not meeting underwriting guidelines.

The Federal Reserve Board has posted a video reminding borrowers that they may be eligible for compensation if they were harmed by the foreclosure process in 2009 or 2010.

The Federal Reserve has ordered Britton & Koontz Capital to obtain the regulator’s approval before making a number of strategic moves.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said May 22 that it plans to issue a rule to expand Regulation E consumer protections for prepaid cards.

Last week, we witnessed the largest initial public offering of a technology company in U.S. history — a company that offers its main service for free, lives entirely on the internet, and is run by a 28-year-old. The euro fell into deeper jeopardy, not merely because of news from the debt markets and at the ballot box, but because Greek and Spanish borrowers reacted to that news in real time, withdrawing much of their euro-denominated savings from domestic banks. And a $2 billion bank loss, based on computer-driven and model-based decision making, almost instantaneously impacted policy discussions and market movements, even before facts became clear.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Tuesday it intends to issue a rule extending consumer protections under Reg E to general purpose reloadable cards.