Law and regulation

The OCC is probing JPMorgan Chase's credit card debt-collection processes.

Robo-signed affidavits and sloppy legal work led the bank to halt court claims. The errors cast doubt on billions of dollars in judgments.

The biggest banks got a clearer picture Monday of what to expect when the Federal Reserve Board releases its latest stress tests results later this week.

Bank of American Corp. and Ally Financial Inc. have agreed to make deeper principal reductions for some borrowers under the $25 billion multistate mortgage servicer settlement.

More than a month after federal and state officials announced a massive $25 billion settlement with the five mortgage servicers, the Justice Department on Monday finally released the actual legal document. The document dump provided critical new details about the terms of the agreement.

Promontory Interfinancial Network LLC said Monday that its Insured Cash Sweep service is now fully integrated with Data Center Inc.'s iCore360 core banking software.

TCF Financial CEO William Cooper had some surprising praise this week for the much-contested CFPB. But he pulled few other punches, telling retail bankers that Bank of America "screwed the pooch" with its failed debit-card fee.

William S. Haraf, the commissioner of California's Department of Financial Institutions, has resigned from the post, effective Friday.

The Credit Union National Association launched a radio campaign to help save House Financial Services Chairman Spencer Bachus, who is being challenged by a Tea Party-backed candidate in Tuesday's Republican primary.

A Senate hearing will focus on the viability of principal reductions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages, while the House will examine a mediation program for banks and lenders in Nevada.

The U.S. government and 49 states filed a $25 billion settlement of alleged foreclosure abuses in federal court on Monday, capping a year of negotiations with five major banks after public outrage erupted in fall 2010 over revelations that banks cut corners when processing foreclosures.

The Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform bill included a provision creating Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion in all 20 federal agencies that regulate our financial system.

U.S. Bancorp has created a separate in-house appraisal unit overseen by a senior risk officer, breaking from the way most banks handle appraisals of residential properties.

Federal Reserve Banks around the country last week took a moment to point out progress made by women in the field of economics and earlier works by female economists to commentate the 101st anniversary of International Women's Day.

Like the nuclear meltdown that devastated Japan a year ago, America's financial crisis resulted in part from collusion between the regulators in the capital and the regulated in the executive suites. Unlike the Japanese, we didn't learn from our calamity.

Longtime community bank investor Eric Hovde has traded Washington D.C. for Wisconsin in the hopes of taking up residence in the nation's capitol.

For a second time in three weeks, regulators have shuttered a bank that others were unwilling to acquire.

The Federal Reserve Board is scheduled to release results this week of the toughest stress tests to date. They will determine what firms can pay a dividend and shape public perceptions of banks' health.

Many financial product innovations sound brilliant, but are prone to blow up after 5 or 15 years of increasing emulation and bloat, as discipline declines. Then, after the horses are long gone, Washington thinks about painting the barn. Some of that happened with inventive mortgages and their securitization, with collateral default swaps, with overinvestment in commercial real estate, and — some would allege — with money market funds.

WASHINGTON — The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has approved Capital One Financial Corp.'s acquisition of HSBC Bank USA's credit card portfolio.