Law and regulation

Spurred by the financial crisis and its impact on their constituents, state attorneys general appear to be carving out a new role as de facto bank regulators. This trend, an unexpected fall out of the financial crisis and the passage of Dodd-Frank, may not as yet be fully appreciated. However, it seems increasingly clear that state AGs will be important arbiters of the way banks do business on a going forward basis.

A new study analyzing data from 15 years of state bank examinations has sparked a debate whether state regulators are not as tough as their federal counterparts.

With all the twists and backroom turns, government officials’ quest for a settlement and restitution from banks and mortgage servicers is starting to resemble a 1960s screwball comedy.

Regulators raised objections Wednesday with a House bill that would set up an independent appeals process for banks.

First Data expects its Star PIN-debit network to benefit this year when the last measure of the Durbin amendment takes hold on April 1, requiring financial institutions with more than $10 billion in assets to have at least two processing networks on their debit cards.

As banks continue to shed their private equity portfolios for regulatory and other reasons, PNC spin-off Incline raises money for a new investment fund and continues to work with its former owner.

Republicans and Democrats on the House Oversight Committee clashed Wednesday over whether the president violated the Constitution when he used recess appointments to fill top vacancies at the CFPB and National Labor Relations Board last month.

President Obama unveiled a new home refinancing plan during his State of the Union address. So far it is short on details and looks destined to fare no better than its predecessors.

Core banking provider Jack Henry's electronic payments unit is moving like a juggernaut. Its clients are also seeing little effect of the Durbin amendment, which had the potential to curb debit-card use.

The fact of the matter is that banks can manipulate earnings, and consequently capital, through decisions about loss provisioning.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is preparing to back away from a controversial plan to overhaul the servicing fees paid on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, after intense, across-the-board industry opposition to the idea.

The Federal Trade Commission has stopped an operation targeting payday loan seekers that charged for worthless programs without consumers' consent.

A plan by the Obama administration to help millions of middle class families refinance their homes would cost large banks between $5 billion to $10 billion, the White House said Wednesday.

An operation that allegedly deceived consumers with false promises of nonexistent sales jobs will be banned from marketing any employment products or services under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.

The election season, already off to a fascinating start, will have an added twist for high-ranking members of the House Financial Services Committee.

There have always been regulatory impediments to the pursuit of profit, but bankers are increasingly worried about how to preserve the self-determination they have left.

The underperformance of big bank stocks last year helped restore their yields to a rough parity with smaller peers, but actual quarterly payouts remained a small fraction of pre-crisis levels.

Safety-and-soundness orders continued to abate late last year in another sign that the banking industry is regaining its balance.

Two top Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee said the CFPB should stop the collection of privileged information from banks until Congress can clarify how that information is protected.

Community banks on average seem to be losing less revenue from a lower interchange cap that first forecast. Observers caution that those banks can't get too comfortable since market forces have yet to change the landscape.