Law and regulation

Since retiring from the Senate in January, Chris Dodd for months maintained a public silence about the landmark financial reform legislation that bears his name.

On Oct. 25 MetLife announced that the Federal Reserve had denied its request for approval of its capital distribution plan that included a dividend increase and resumption of stock repurchases. Likely it is a reflection of a prudent regulator. Rather than make an isolated determination on a single company, the Fed probably prefers to await results from its planned 2012 cross-institution analysis of the largest U.S. bank holding companies. MetLife's participation in that analysis underscores its systemic importance.

Obstacles and opportunities for banks in calls for consumers to move their money.

It's not just banks that are raising prices after changes to the rates that merchants pay to accept debit cards — on Thursday, Coinstar's Redbox DVD rental service said debit fees are driving its prices up by 20 cents a day. Other kiosk-based businesses may have to follow its example.

Advances across the 12-Bank cooperative fell again during the third quarter, according to the Office of Finance for the Federal Home Loan Banks.

Green Dot Corp. is licking its lips over banks' new debit card fees, but the prepaid card company still doesn't know quite how large its eventual meal will be.

Bankers are pushing the CFPB to provide a safe harbor for its rule to require lenders to verify a borrower's ability to repay a mortgage loan, but consumer groups are warning the agency not to go that far.

A disabled homeowner tries to navigate the mortgage servicing bureaucracy to obtain loan modification.

The Federal Reserve has announced written agreements with three banking companies.

Rep. Elijah Cummings is calling on the House Oversight Committee to use its powers to issue subpoenas to regulators to obtain copies of "engagement letters" agreed upon between mortgage servicing companies and firms hired to review their past foreclosure abuse.

Bankers warn that a proposal to require them to report interest earned by individual foreign depositors could cause bank runs in certain areas.

Recent predictions of the demise of branch banking can sound like the premature eulogies that have been floated since the advent of the Internet, but data suggests that a fundamental shift may be underway.

Visa Inc. next year plans to ramp up a series of incentives for merchants and acquirers, as the world's largest payments network braces for new regulations that are expected to cost it some debit transactions.

WASHINGTON - Two Florida bank executives and one bank borrower were sentenced to federal prison Tuesday and ordered to pay nearly $100 million for attempting to defraud the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

WASHINGTON - Lawmakers are questioning Bank of America's recent transfer of derivatives from its Merrill Lynch subsidiary to its retail bank subsidiary.

Thirty-three Senate Democrats said the Obama administration should "quickly and diligently" analyze industry comments to finalize a plan to help turn foreclosures into rental properties.

A key Republican released a new set of reforms designed to encourage the return of the private mortgage market after the eventual elimination of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

A U.S. district court halted a collection operation that allegedly deceived and abused consumers, including making bogus threats that consumers had been sued or could be arrested over debts they often did not owe.

Roughly 400 banks remain in Tarp, and it's not at all clear how they're going to get out, the special inspector general for Tarp said in a new report.

The Volcker rule included in the Dodd-Frank Act was intended to eliminate "proprietary trading" at universal banks. This was largely motivated by the massive losses incurred by the proprietary trading desks of Wall Street investment firms that securitized mortgages. In the rush to mitigate systemic risk in the wake of the subprime lending debacle, banking charters and the Fed's protective umbrella were extended to the remaining investment banks. The thinking was that trading is risky, and hence not appropriate for insured banks, but establishing rules to prevent trading at universal banks was never going to be easy.