Law and regulation

The Texan presidential hopeful must learn to put policy over hyperbole when he speaks about Ben Bernanke or the Federal Reserve.

WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Gary Ackerman plans to introduce legislation aimed at jumpstarting the housing market by providing two new enticements to homebuyers.

After 15 years at the helm of the state regulatory group, Neil Milner will step down Sept. 1, while his long time deputy will take his place.

Those tech companies provide an allocative service with fewer employees, but they also don't have regulators and don't need retail branches. Perhaps Apple's the better benchmark.

As if the financial system needed more challenges, there is a huge one lurking that never goes away: keeping data secure. Because our current market and economic predicament has presented a barrage of other risks that are perceived as more immediate, securing customer and corporate data too often remains at the bottom of the triage list.

Deals will stall in the short term as volatility complicates stock-related transactions and creates uncertainty. But a low-rate environment will crimp growth and ultimately drive consolidation.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is claiming the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has overstepped its bounds by soliciting comments on its nonbank supervision program.

Standard Bank Ltd. in South Africa is slashing the minimum monthly repayment rate across all its credit cards to help customers manage their expenses more efficiently, the issuer announced August 11.

In a blog post, top administration official disputes media report that it has decided on the future of housing finance reform.

In comment letters to the regulators, the largest banks offered a litany of complaints about the plan, saying it fails to define key terms, is overly broad and includes some unworkable provisions.

The GOP presidential hopeful went too far in suggesting that Bernanke's policies are "treasonous."

Credit unions should get a better understanding of MasterCard’s intentions regarding supporting a two-tiered debit interchange system.

A survey of loan officers released by the Federal Reserve Board said that lending standards today are tighter for a variety of business and consumer loans than at any time since 2005.

The FDIC's return to black has led to calls for banks to get back some of the prepayments they made into the agency's Deposit Insurance Fund.

Every time it seems Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is about to step down, rumors that Jamie Dimon may take his place gain traction.

Is she or isn't she? Elizabeth Warren gave her strongest indication yet that she's planning a Senate run with a posting Thursday on the liberal Massachusetts blog Blue Mass Group.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has appointed a former project director from the Pew Charitable Trusts as deputy comptroller.

WASHINGTON — The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency shut $538.1 million-asset First National Bank of Olathe in Kansas, the first failure in the state this year, bringing the total number of collapses in the country to 64.

Banking companies that received rescue capital from the government and fall behind on payments have trouble getting out of the hole.

The Obama administration faces reputational and practical problems if it rents out foreclosed homes as part of its new efforts to unload the backlog of real-estate owned properties held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.