Law and regulation

Even with the housing market stabilizing and a settlement between megaservicers and state AGs on the horizon, the mortgage industry shouldn't expect an increase in originations next year, according to a new forecast from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

Just seven months ago, Democrats appeared to be boxed in, unable to confirm a leader to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau without agreeing to demands from Senate Republicans to overhaul the agency's structure.

Sheila Bair, the former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chairman, is a leading candidate among state officials to ensure banks comply with any settlement of a nationwide foreclosure probe, a person familiar with the matter said.

Participants at a Treasury Department panel on insurance regulation Friday offered divergent opinions about the role the new Federal Insurance Office should play.

The consumer agency officially opened its ombudsman’s office on Friday.

New polls find that bankers may at least be more liked than lawmakers.

It costs a bank $349 a year on average to maintain a checking account. As banks decide whether or not to add fees to their free checking offerings, they must evaluate their costs carefully.

Republic Bancorp in Louisville, Ky., announced on Friday that it would soon stop making refund-anticipation loans as part of a settlement with the FDIC. Now it needs to find revenue to replace the $24.5 million the business has made this year.

The Dodd-Frank Act created the Office of Financial Research in an effort to collect data that would help regulators detect and head off systemic risk. But policymakers face a host of challenges in fulfilling the agency's mission.

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods is advising investors to steer clear of most big banks' stocks in 2012 and invest instead in life insurers, credit card companies and smaller-cap regional banks.

Lars Svensson, deputy governor of Sweden's central bank recently urged the Federal Reserve to find ways to push borrowing costs lower — this even though we already have the lowest nominal interest rates in modern history.

Phishing scams involving all types of payment methods are on the rise nationwide and the latest one in North Dakota involves Green Dot Corp.’s MoneyPak.

During debate on the confirmation of a director for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe found herself largely alone on a political island.

In 1982, in the height of the first savings and loan crisis, the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation announced a new policy that would seek to hold those responsible — particularly directors and officers — for losses ultimately suffered by the FSLIC in resolving their failed institutions.

Although the push to confirm Richard Cordray to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau failed, Democrats appear to gaining political ground and successfully portraying Republicans as too tied to Wall Street.

The MF Global collapse provides an important lesson concerning the effectiveness of the principal or proprietary banking model.

Despite new limits on debit card interchange, the price of Slurpees has stubbornly remained the same, according to a survey completed by the payments industry’s lobbying group.

The payments industry's lobbying group is touting its findings that some merchant opponents have not lowered prices since the debit card swipe fee caps went into effect.

When a Chicago man fell behind on his car payments, he claims in a new lawsuit that his lender tried to ruin his marriage by leaving a phone message mentioning his girlfriend.

The result sets up the possibility of a recess appointment by President Obama or a series of additional Senate votes on Cordray in 2012.