Law and regulation

Support for a clearer ban is widespread since a 60 Minutes report suggested lawmakers — including House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus — traded on nonpublic information, but members are still debating the scope of the legislation.

Doing something — anything — quickly but poorly is no substitute for taking the time to do what needs to be done well.

A bipartisanship bill seeks to give banks a new way to appeal exam results and has regulators steaming.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency this week hired Manoj K. Singh as principal examiner for risk, in charge of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

While the largest 8 U.S. banks already know they will face a capital surcharge, a top Federal Reserve official suggested that more domestic bank holding companies may face such a charge to fulfill capital requirements under Dodd-Frank.

Ahead of the Department of Labor's anticipated proposal to redefine fiduciary responsibility, expected sometime in 2012, 55 House Republicans sent a letter asking for more careful consideration of the effects on consumer choice before any new rule is proposed.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's staff will need "a few additional months" to complete work on its recommendation to the commission about whether U.S. companies should adopt the international rules, SEC chief accountant James Kroeker said.

Many community banks that are struggling to grow and cannot afford to repay their bailout aid will be forced to sell, and they don't have a lot of time to find a buyer.

The battle between Democrats and Republicans over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will come to a head this week when Senate Democrats hold a vote — expected to fail — on the confirmation of the bureau's first director. But observers said the vote, which is likely to be the first of many, plays into a White House strategy of painting Republicans as anti-consumer protection, and friends of Wall Street.

Following MF Global failure, agency limits firms' ability to invest customer money in sovereign debt and other instruments.

Sterling Bank in Washington and the FDIC are both pursuing claims against directors and officers of Bank of Clark County, which failed in 2009. Sterling was the first to file, but lawyers believe the FDIC will likely get its tab paid first, if legal fees don't end up taking it all.

While the living will rule requires firms to provide voluminous data on many aspects of their banking companies, regulators are likely to be primarily focused on a narrative of how they can be taken apart.

As a powerful liberal force in banking legislation announces his retirement, bankers face the prospect that he will be replaced by someone even less to their liking.

The law firm Ballard Spahr announced Monday that it has added a new mortgage banking practice, tapping three partners and one associate from Patton Boggs.

HSBC Holdings PLC was slapped with the biggest retail fine to date by the U.K. Financial Services Authority after the regulator found it sold unsuitable products to elderly customers.

Massachusetts sued Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup Inc. and GMAC late last week over deceptive foreclosure practices such as robosigning documents.

The war over interchange between merchants and the payments industry continues. That's not surprising with tens of billions of dollars being allocated by Washington rather than the market in question.

The Treasury Department sent a letter to the nearly 400 banks still in the program attempting to chart a path toward the exit.

A mix of personal and professional reasons pushed the former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee to retire.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner called on the Senate Thursday to act soon to confirm a director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Senate Democrats may hold a vote as early as next week.