Law and regulation

Congress recently heard conflicting testimony from three professors and one think tank fellow on a simple, straightforward question: Should there be a guarantee for mortgage securities in the future?

I was at a summit with 300 other community bankers when we were startled by chants of "Make Banks Pay!" Occupy Wall Street and related groups see no solutions coming out of Washington they are attacking bankers as public enemy #1.

You wouldn't automatically expect a Tea Party darling to express sympathy for the Occupy Wall Street protestors, but that is what Ron Paul did Wednesday.

At a hearing Thursday, Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., grilled Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on when the administration will release a GSE reform plan that is more detailed than its April white paper, which provided a rough sketch of three different options.

David Nebhut has been named deputy comptroller for economic and policy analysis at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

As agencies face the daunting task of finalizing their much-criticized rule, there is growing speculation that regulators will need to re-propose their proposal.

Regulators' consent orders let mortgage servicers select the firms to review their actions. Allowing the banks to choose their own judge, jury, and jailer presents almost untenable conflicts of interest.

Early reviews of the draft plan implementing the proprietary trading ban and hedge fund investment limits have industry representatives concerned it is too long and complicated.

If the industry works seriously with the reasonable critics of its fee practices — the ones who stress disclosure — it can safely ignore the rabble-rousers.

Fearing that banks might get off too easy in the multi-state mortgage settlement talks, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is preparing to file lawsuits against the nation's largest servicers for wrongfully foreclosing on customers.

WASHINGTON–President Obama sharply criticized the financial sector Oct. 5 in response to questions about the Occupy Wall Street movement, the small number of prosecutions related to the financial crisis, and his recent comments about Bank of America's plan to impose a fee on debit-card users.

First Tennessee Bank in Memphis is taking an unusual approach with its new debit card fees: instead of collecting a monthly fee, the bank will charge its customers a few cents every time they use their debit cards.

The president offers a sharp critique of the banking industry, while saying that he does not believe the government should dictate how much profit private companies make.

Though it established a two-tier rate structure to accommodate issuers exempt from new caps on debit card interchange established by the Federal Reserve Board, Visa Inc. made only minor changes to the rates acquirers use to determine how much they pay card issuers with less than $10 billion in assets.

Capital rules, too big to fail, the European crisis and other wild cards are holding back deals, Jonathan Pruzan says. But a burst of mergers among midsize banks is possible.

In appearances before the House and Senate, the Treasury secretary testifies about the housing market, community banks, financial stability, and America's exposure to the European debt crisis.

For the vast majority of Americans, the role of the bank is to be there when the customer wants it to be there. Like the water company. Like the electric company.

The Senate Banking Committee voted 12-10 to send the nomination of Richard Cordray to the full Senate.

Consumer delinquencies continued to climb in the second quarter with nine of 11 loan categories showing increases, according to a study released Wednesday by the American Bankers Association.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday that Wall Street's anger toward President Obama is "inexplicable," though possibly fueled by resentment after the administration engineered a massive bailout of the financial industry.