Law and regulation

"There can be little doubt that financial stability issues have risen to the top of the agenda for the major central banks."

In testimony before Congress, Shaun Donovan acknowledges that FHA's reserves could be depleted if housing prices keep falling. But he says the agency has tools available to shore up its financial condition, if they become necessary.

Two regulators-turned-consultants, invoking a famous Ronald Reagan quote, are really "here to help" this time.

With customers awaiting claims stemming from bankruptcy of derivatives firm, lawmakers urge tougher rules on segregating funds.

The CFPB, Treasury, and SIGTARP have formed a task force to target mortgage modification scams.

Rep. Barney Frank, the lead Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, said he doesn't see Republicans budging on their demands for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau any time soon, and expects that the confirmation of its first director will depend on the election next year.

Total lawsuits filed in the U.S. this year citing alleged Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) violations reached 10,402 through mid-October, well ahead of last year's pace when the 10,000 mark was reached on Dec. 1, according to WebRecon LLC, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based company that tracks the data from the courts.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley on Thursday sued five national mortgage lenders — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial — alleging their foreclosure practices were unlawful and deceptive.

The Federal Trade Commission this week is sending an estimated $90,000 in total refunds to 2,900 victims of a company that allegedly marketed worthless debt management services, before being found in contempt for violating a court order barring its activities.

Jimmy Didden of National Capitol doesn't believe that intense regulation of the big banks will make the system or the economy any stronger.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau lacks leadership at the moment, but not direction. Although Elizabeth Warren has left and Richard Cordray has yet to be confirmed, their laundry list is extensive and they're getting down to business.

The CFPB can work to safeguard checking account holders by setting regulations around the disclosure of fees and overdraft options. No matter how uniformity is reached, it will enhance competition and make the market run more efficiently.

Banks launched later in the decade, whose ramps to profitability lagged their predecessors’, provide a cautionary tale about headwinds that can emerge in an unstable economy, and the dangers of piling into a strategy based on brokered deposits and real estate lending.

The roughly 800 banks opened since 2002 have failed at about twice the industrywide pace. But some, including a few that have been repurposed as rollup vehicles, have prospered. The tables here rank the best and worst performers among the de novos of the past decade.

Republican Sen. Richard Shelby is asking for an investigation of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's oversight of MF Global.

The Treasury said Thursday it expects to gain net proceeds of $3.4 million after pricing warrants to purchase shares in Associated Banc-Corp., one of the financial institutions it rescued during the financial crisis.

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on Thursday had a message for those hoping to water down last year's financial regulatory overhaul — it's not going to happen.

The system is likely to be a critical piece of how the CFPB writes new regulations. We offer an inside view of how it works.

A proposal to allow more small banks to avoid SEC registration will be highlighted by the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday — a sign that the issue has become a priority on Capitol Hill.

The measures, which passed the House Financial Services Committee with bipartisan support, reopen last year's debate on regulating derivatives.