Law and regulation

Clifford Rosenthal has been hired to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Office of Financial Empowerment.

The Twitterverse welcomed the Federal Reserve Board as a member last week and the Fed amassed more than 15,300 followers in a matter of days.

The results of the Federal Reserve Board's stress tests separated the strong from the weak among the 19 largest banks. Following is a breakdown of selected results and how individual institutions fared.

The industry largely backed Mitt Romney in the GOP primaries. With Obama's chances of reelection improving, should bankers be worried?

An appellate court has ruled that a borrower has the right to sue a servicer for violating the Home Affordable Modification Program, but a judge noted that the decision would have been helped by input from the Treasury Department.

The terms of the national mortgage settlement overlap to some extent with existing federal consent orders against the largest servicers, which could complicate banks' compliance efforts with both — and the role of the external settlement monitor.

Community bankers are worried about stress tests, even though there is nothing in the Dodd-Frank Act requiring them to do it. While regulators are not requiring the tests for smaller banks, they are increasingly encouraging bankers conduct such tests.

In Barbara Rehm's column "It's Time for Money Funds to Fess Up About Fluctuating Values," she characterizes the $1 net asset value as "a fiction," which is defined at something feigned, invented or imagined.

Phishers turn the tables and mobile payments still scare consumers in the big security stories of the week through March 15.

The appeals court ruling is likely to perpetuate the perverse situation in which banks view SEC legal settlements as a cost of doing business rather than a deterrent for fraud.

Orrstown Financial Services Inc. in Shippensburg, Pa., said it expects to reach formal agreements with regulators that could require it to strengthen its credit risk management practices.

For years, Litton Loan Servicing was open to making a deal with delinquent borrowers. Then Goldman took over.

For young businesses to succeed, they first need business management tools, networks and coaching. Only after they have these things are they ready to take out loans.

Two managers of a debt collection business are banned from the industry and agreed to surrender their assets as part of settlements reached with the Federal Trade Commission.

WASHINGTON — Banks successfully warded off a measure Thursday that would have raised the small business lending cap for credit unions, but they continue to battle a second amendment to a House-passed bill that they also oppose.

Citigroup Inc.'s failure to see that it would not pass the Federal Reserve Board's stress tests has left the firm in a challenging position — and may serve as a stark lesson to other banks.

With the overseers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac digging in their heels against the use of principal write-downs for troubled homeowners, Senate Democrats pressed their case for a course change on Thursday.

The $25 billion national mortgage settlement essentially allows the five largest servicers to police themselves - which has made many consumer advocates surprisingly happy.

The FDIC is holding an auction for jewelry it inherited from the failed Tennessee Commerce Bank. The bank picked up the baubles after a jewelry store defaulted.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency moved Thursday to restrict home builders from imposing a controversial fee on property transactions that critics call unfair to home buyers.