Law and regulation

NetSpend has learned the hard way that tapping into the vast market of underbanked consumers isn’t so easy. Its revenue failed to meet analysts’ estimates and it lost three distributors.

Supporters say the bill is needed to support the nation's weak housing markets.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has reached a settlement with Bank of America, which releases the company from liability for failing to provide alternatives to foreclosure on 57,000 delinquent government-insured mortgages.

Banking has become a complicated business, and working with regulators and other outside parties such as auditors and shareholders makes it even more so. Management teams, especially directors, increasingly need simpler tools such as dashboard reports and guidelines rather than complex methodologies and models.

Several prominent economists said too big to fail firms are continuing to distort the economy despite efforts in Dodd-Frank to eliminate the problem.

While Visa is adding new fees and reducing existing ones to entice merchant routing, MasterCard plans to make changes only on a deal-by-deal basis.

Visa Inc. fired the first shot in the post-Durbin pricing war, but MasterCard Worldwide is not ready to pull the trigger, at least not yet.

At a time when megabank mortgage servicers are under siege by regulators and consumer groups for their treatment of customers, a small band of specialty servicers is trying to convince Washington that its members can do better.

At a Senate hearing on the future of U.S. mortgage finance, industry representatives said there are ways to bring more private capital into the market prior to the passage of any overhaul legislation.

Comerica has settled its Experi-Metal hacking case out of court, despite an earlier vow that it would appeal. It's a sign of how new security guidelines are starting to affect banks.

One of the likely less-appreciated perks of being Federal Reserve Board chairman is that you are a frequent target of The Onion.

Countries pledge coordination but then go their own ways when it comes to financial regulation. Could it spell the end of global finance?

Bank of America Corp. is having preliminary conversations about a home-foreclosure settlement that would reduce the amounts owed by some of its troubled borrowers in exchange for a broad release from legal claims against the lender, said people familiar with the talks.

Higher spending on its credit and debit cards boosted MasterCard Inc.'s second-quarter net revenue by 22.1% from a year earlier.

The dramatic exit of Dominique Strauss-Kahn from the International Monetary Fund and the selection of Christine Lagarde as the fund's new managing director have put the international spotlight on the process by which leadership of international financial bodies is determined.

The Senate nomination hearing for Richard Cordray, who's tabbed to become the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has been postponed until Sept. 6.

At a Senate hearing, community bankers express concern that rules designed to address flaws in the securitization process will harm their more traditional mortgage operations.

A federal appeals court decision, which found the Securities and Exchange Commission failed to properly look at the economic costs of a new proxy rule, could present serious challenges to the rule-making process under Dodd-Frank and put regulators under even more pressure.

American Banker editors debate whether the landmark financial legislation will prevent another financial calamity or merely harness banks with huge new regulatory burdens.

Legal Helpers Debt Resolution, a Chicago-based debt settlement company, was fined $314,000 on Monday and issued a cease-and-desist order of its unlicensed business by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR).