Law and regulation

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner reiterated support Wednesday for mortgage principal reductions at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said it plans to follow the Justice Department's lead in pursuing fair lending violations when a policy has a disparate impact on a group of borrowers, unintentional or not.

Bankers are complaining the Fed is letting economists direct supervision while it refuses to allow much public debate on issues critical to the industry. Editor-at-large Barbara A. Rehm argues the Fed needs to be less insular and challenge Congress more.

The new rule will force banks in border-states to provide information about payments to foreign depositors, but lawmakers from Florida have proposed legislation to block the reporting requirement.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is asking banks that issue structured notes to boost disclosures to investors, including the banks' own estimates for the securities' market value at the time of sale.

The pace of bank failures will slow considerably this year as the industry continues to recover from the real estate bust, according to the acting head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

We are in danger of a harmful proposal, which could be implemented this week. The proposal by the U.S. Department of Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service would require all banks located within the United States to report interest payments made to nonresident alien depositors. The IRS in turn would exchange this information with foreign governments for data about Americans in those countries.

A group of fair housing advocates said Tuesday it plans to file a discrimination complaint against U.S. Bancorp, claiming the bank failed to maintain and market real estate-owned properties in minority neighborhoods.

The Cincinnati company was barred from raising the payout today after the most-recent series of stress tests.

Large buildups of options granted over the years to the bosses at Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase could serve as an incentive to make riskier plays than at B of A and Citi.

At a House hearing Tuesday, Republican lawmakers sounded pleased with steps the agency is taking in response to concerns about how it conducts economic analyses of its proposed rules.

The GSE could have approved a short sale that would have let Louise Davidson stay in her home as a renter and eventually have the opportunity to buy it back. True to form, Fannie evicted her instead.

Some analysts believe the time is ripe for second-step conversions by mutual holding companies. Still, some bankers believe the floodgates will remain closed until regulators decide to let MHCs pay a special dividend before converting.

In first speech as comptroller, Curry touts the benefits of the national charter for community banks and thrifts as more consider flipping to state charters.

Federal banking regulators are demanding changes to a proposed $1.5 million settlement between Colonial Bank's former parent company and ex-leaders of the failed bank, including Bobby Lowder, the Auburn University booster who once served as chief executive.

Patience has been a common virtue for businesses, financial institutions or agencies seeking to convert consumers to electronic payments and do away from paper checks.

Big cost hits on debit and credit cards have already happened, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has not made any overly threatening moves yet, Davis says.

The state of Hawaii has sued seven major credit card issuers over the marketing of credit card insurance-like products, known as payment protection plans.

Grant Thornton has hired a former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. employee as a managing director in its national bank regulatory practice.

Too-big-to-fail stifles economic growth. Oligopolies and asset concentration strangle competition and suppress innovation, job creation and free markets in financial services, as they once did in oil, steel and telecommunications.