Law and regulation

The Federal Reserve's vow to keep interest rates low for another two years has taken a number of bankers by surprise.

A pair of banking companies said Friday that they have been approved for participating the in the Small Business Lending Fund and plan to use the funds to exit the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The Office of Financial Research said Friday it had delayed plans to issue a rule requiring financial firms to use a legal entity identifier when they report data to the OFR.

Efforts to crack regulators' code are varied but may be close to the mark.

One year following the implementation of Reg E – opt-in for debit card and ATM overdrafts – and 77% of checking account users have given consent.

Some of the new red tape was supposed to drive deals, but it could dry up M&A among banks near $50 billion of assets.

Banks have struggled for years to get their customers to accept paperless account statements. But even among those who have succeeded in such efforts, paper use has risen.

Barack Obama has missed his chance to see a director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau take office within his first term as president.

Regulators should be aware of the role banks play in steering these products into pension, endowment and foundation portfolios.

The reality is sinking in.

Market volatility is fueling fears of a large institution collapse, but regulators are unlikely to act unless the situation gets a lot worse.

WASHINGTON — A panel of House members will meet next week in Georgia, the epicenter of bank failures nationwide, for a hearing on whether bank examiners have become overly strict.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., named three Democrats to the Joint Select Deficit Committee on Thursday, finalizing the list of 12 lawmakers who will try to reduce the budget deficit by $1.5 trillion this fall.

Maine Attorney General William Schneider's office reached an agreement with Texas-based debt management company Credit Solutions of America Inc. to settle charges of unfair trade practices.

The article "Bankers Fear 'Witch Hunt' in Government Pursuit of Fair Lending Cases" [Aug 2] chronicles the response of bankers, advocates, the Department of Justice itself, and others to "an aggressive push by the Justice Department to investigate fair lending claims..." and "...the launch last year of a special fair-lending unit within Justice's civil rights division...investigating claims of bank discrimination in their credit policies."

Community bankers have a chance to have our issues heard over the next few months on the national front.

Changes to expungement procedures have made it tougher for brokers to sanitize their records, but a continuing practice may help them avoid disclosing certain details that should be public.

Neither the questions nor the answers lived up the hype during the 90-minute public conference call hosted by investor Bruce Berkowitz.

Democrats and Republicans choose hard-liners as co-chairs of joint committee on deficit reduction, suggesting compromise may be hard to reach.

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators are seeking input on new options for selling foreclosure properties owned by the government sponsored enterprises and the Federal Housing Administration.