Law and regulation

WASHINGTON — Loan quality improved slightly over the past six weeks while demand was stable to weak, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Federal Reserve Board.

In his new economic plan, the Republican presidential candidate offers his most detailed comments to date on last year's financial reform law. He also says that he'd amend the Sarbanes-Oxley in an effort to help mid-sized businesses.

President Obama should acknowledge that something is seriously wrong with the government's response to the financial crisis of 2008 and chart a new course. The wisdom in comic strip legend Pogo's famous remark comes to mind, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Wednesday it is seeking public input on products and services aimed at members of the military and their families.

Financial services issues are not the priority on Capitol Hill, but several high profile issues are likely to impact banks.

WASHINGTON–In a long-awaited showdown over the future of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Sept. 6, Republicans and Democrats sparred over whether the Senate should proceed with the nomination of the bureau’s first director.

Associated Banc-Corp in Green Bay, Wis., plans to raise more than $200 million in fresh capital and will use the proceeds to repay the balance of its debt to the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency aggressively pushed back Tuesday against claims that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were sophisticated investors that should have done a better job of vetting their purchases of mortgage-backed securities.

Federal restrictions on debit interchange are still causing sleepless nights for many bankers — even those whose institutions are exempt from the new fee caps.

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson's office is suing five Internet payday lenders that made loans to consumers in the state.

U.S. government-backed firms and agencies should "stop punishing banks" and suspend demands for mortgage repurchases because they are impeding an economic recovery, according to Paul Miller of FBR Capital Markets & Co.

Banks with assets of less than $10 billion are exempt from the Dodd-Frank Act's restrictions on debit interchange, but even those who are exempt from the law are still bracing for what they see as its inevitable effects on their checking accounts and other operations.

In the 1980s Freddie Mac had a marketing campaign "The Gnomes Know," touting their expertise in mortgage markets. Now the Federal Housing Finance Agency has filed a $200 billion lawsuit against 17 of the nation's largest mortgage lenders arguing that during the subprime lending debacle of the last decade the gnomes didn't know!

Low-risk reinsurance vehicles amounted to illegal payoffs, the HUD Inspector General's office found in 2009. But the Department of Justice hasn't acted on the case referred by to it by HUD investigators.

Rep. Brad Miller says the overseer of Fannie and Freddie is to be commended for seeking to minimize taxpayer losses.

Is it worth delaying a bottoming-out of the housing market, and allowing some delinquent borrowers to freeload for a time, in order to prevent the rare but documented instances of someone being wrongly foreclosed on?

Senate Banking Committee members remain far more worried about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's governance than its prospective leader.

The FDIC has terminated its consent order against Clarkston State Bank in Michigan after the bank recapitalized with investments from private citizens and current board members and made improvements in managing its loan portfolio.

In New Zealand, three Hells Angels' gang members were among four men arrested last week in an operation to target unlawful debt collections.

Dodd-Frank gives the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau the authority to prohibit abusive practices, but just what does "abusive" mean? Banks and their lawyers are struggling to figure it out.