Law and regulation

WASHINGTON – The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will present a broad picture Tuesday morning of how banks and thrifts fared in the third quarter.

While B of A nips and tucks as it struggles to meet new capital requirements, JPMorgan Chase bemoans the severity of the rules from a position of relative strength, and hints at the rationale for the behemoths to dismantle themselves.

Regent Asset Management Solution Inc., based in Denver, and CEO Michael Scata must pay the state of Colorado $70,000 in civil penalties for alleged violations of the Colorado Consumer Protection Act.

WASHINGTON — Regulators closed a bank in Louisiana, and another in Iowa, late Friday to bring the year’s failure total to 90.

The FDIC finished first among large federal agencies in the Partnership for Public Service's 2011 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government survey, with an employee satisfaction rating of 85.9 out of 100.

On Nov. 14 the president announced plans to appoint Janie Barrera and Sherry Salway Black to his Advisory Council on Financial Capability.

Newt Gingrich is surging in Republican presidential polls, but he was still thrown last week by a tough question at a recent debate from CNBC's John Harwood.

As in other East Coast cities, residents of the capital have had to adapt to a growing chill in the air. But the change was a little more abrupt for those at Thursday's nomination hearing for the Senate Banking Committee.

Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito and Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney team up on a measure that would give banks the right to appeal examination decisions.

Republican Scott Brown tapped into anger with Washington to capture a U.S. Senate seat in 2010. Elizabeth Warren, a consumer advocate and Harvard law professor, is wagering on public disgust with Wall Street to help Democrats win it back in 2012

Consumer groups are banding together to urge the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to require prepaid debit card issuers to provide consumers with the same mandatory protections that come with traditional debit cards under Regulation E of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act.

Addressing the home mortgage meltdown, Congressman Scott Garrett recently introduced legislation that is, as American Banker put it, "designed to draw the private sector back to the secondary-mortgage market after the troubled GSEs are terminated."

Banks, the FDIC, and insurers are set to fight over whether the vague terms of director & officer liability insurance put insurers on the hook for FDIC claims against failed bank execs.

Regulators will eventually release banks from the penalty box of formal enforcement actions. For now, banks can expect informal agreements to serve as a provisional step to freedom.

Shouldn't it be a given that an agency staffed with green examiners and tasked with enforcing new rules will communicate with banks before slapping them with regulatory orders?

In a new paper, Karen Shaw Petrou, a leading financial services analyst, outlines flaws with new capital and liquidity requirements, and offers policymakers a way to simplify the process.

WASHINGTON — Consumer advocates are calling on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to provide greater protections for prepaid debit card accounts.

The Treasury Department said Friday it netted $12.21 million from the sale of warrants to buy stock in 17 financial firms, including banks such as Maryland-based Eagle Bancorp Inc. and Indiana-based Horizon Bancorp.

The federal government could avoid many unnecessary bank failures by making targeted preferred equity investments in community banks with a Camels 3 rating.

WASHINGTON — The nominee to run the Federal Housing Administration Thursday said she opposes extending higher limits on federally-insured loans.