Law and regulation

The mortgage industry is welcoming the Obama administration's possibly final word on housing finance reform, hoping it will serve as guidepost for the future.

WASHINGTON — A retired Office of the Comptroller of the Currency employee left last year with more than 10,000 sensitive records uploaded to two thumb drives, the agency revealed on Friday.

Progressives are already pushing Democrats to appoint another Wall Street reformer to the Banking Committee if they win back the Senate, but other considerations, including the 2018 midterms, will play a significant role in who is chosen.

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WASHINGTON — Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., are raising concerns about why independent audits of Wells Fargo's internal controls didn't discover fraudulent account openings by thousands of employees.

Many fully expected the agency to approve the significant overhaul of its field of membership rule, but the regulator went one better, issuing a new proposal that raises the population limit on well-defined communities from 2.5 million to 10 million.

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sent letters Thursday to 44 mortgage lenders warning them of potential reporting violations related to their mortgage lending activities — infractions the bureau is increasingly pushing lenders to take seriously.

A financial report due out soon could reignite a battle over whether the Federal Housing Administration should again reduce its annual premium.

Nearly a year and more than 10,000 comment letters after it was introduced, the National Credit Union Administration is expected to vote Thursday on a final rule that would make it easier for consumers to join a credit union.

One of the nation's biggest prepaid card issuers said that it expects to lose 10% to 12% of its current revenue as a result of new federal rules governing the industry.

Five banks in Kansas are putting together plans to share a compliance officer. While the move should save money, the banks are fully aware of the risks involved with the potential collaboration.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is expanding efforts to encourage the development of new banking products, announcing Wednesday that it will establish an office of innovation to spearhead research and communication related to fintech.

The regulatory environment could be looking brighter for New York Community Bancorp as it is poised to cross an important regulatory threshold.

WASHINGTON – Sixteen Senate Democrats sent a letter to federal financial regulators on Wednesday asking them to strengthen a proposal to restrict executive compensation at financial firms.

WASHINGTON – The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a reminder to banks that their obligations to report suspicious transactions also extend to certain cybersecurity attacks.

The Federal Reserve is asking the payments industry for input on securing faster payments processing.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray has revived an ongoing dispute between banks and fintech firms over screen scraping, a method certain companies use to obtain access to consumer bank records.

The piling on at Wells Fargo has reached an unprecedented level, even for a bank. Fifteen investigations are underway into Wells' phony account openings. Experts are quantifying the damage to Wells' reputation and what the bank can do going forward to repair it.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will require underperforming servicers to document the technology and process changes they're making to implement the agency's recently released servicing regulations.

Neither bank regulators nor banks' risk managers can afford to wait until rating agencies downgrade Deutsche before understanding the level of exposure they have to the German bank giant.