Law and regulation

WASHINGTON – Lawmakers are calling for immediate action to pass long-stalled data-security legislation in the face of last week’s news of a massive data breach at cards processor Global Payments Inc. (see story).

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is lauding the state's House of Representatives for passing the Debtors' Rights Act of 2012, a bill aimed at protecting consumers from being taken to jail for unpaid debts. House legislators voted 107-0-1 to approve House Bill 5434.

Compliance departments are being stressed like never before by disclosures, audits and testing. Automated compliance platforms are one way to bring it all under control.

Should bank directors and officers have to give up their insurance coverage for civil money penalties?

A few weeks ago, President Obama released his fiscal 2013 budget proposal. The $3.8 trillion spending request-spelled out over 256 pages-is available for download at whitehouse.gov. Or just peruse our quick tour of the items most relevant to banks.

Will the acrimony over swipe fees keep banks and retailers from working together on mobile payments?

Regulators closed Fidelity Bank in Dearborn, Mich., at a cost of about $93 million to the Deposit Insurance Fund.

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Why did the Senate confirm Martin Gruenberg as a board member of the FDIC but not the agency's chairman? We seek to answer this and other questions, including how it will impact banks and the agency itself.

To borrow from Mr. Becker's disingenuous BankThink piece ("More Credit Union Business Lending Would Boost Economy"), it's time for our nation's leaders to get serious about credit unions.

Participants in a recent American Banker roundtable debate to what extent tougher supervision for banks above $50 billion of assets will deter deals among banks below the threshold.

Legislators are considering a proposed tax overhaul that would move $30 million of taxes from community banks to larger banks. With smaller bills, community banks say they can lend more.

Industry lawyer and former Comptroller of the Currency Jerry Hawke makes the case against further regulation of money market funds.

Does the Fed print money? Are its asset purchases increasing the deficit? Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke sought to put commonly-held beliefs to rest in a lecture to students.

U.S. Bancorp is pulling out of the private student loans market, as banking regulators step up their scrutiny of the products. JPMorgan Chase is also cutting back on student lending.

BancTrust Financial Group (BTFG), a troubled Mobile, Ala., company that is looking for a buyer, has bought itself time to find one after reaching a deal to delay interest payments on a $20 million loan outstanding to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The banking industry, its management teams and boards of directors have been served notice that much more will be required of them.

The Justice Department's latest fair lending report shows the agency has no signs of slowing its enforcement activity, which peaked in 2011 with the help of banking regulators.

A lack of jail sentences for financial executives doesn't have to mean justice wasn't done.

A federal judge rejected an attempt by the Securities and Exchange Commission to compel Wells Fargo to comply with an administrative subpoena, ordering the agency and the bank to meet to resolve their dispute over documents related to an MBS probe.