Law and regulation

Even as tight ties between regulators and the regulated are blamed for the housing collapse, former FHA chief David Stevens shows the Washington revolving door is in full swing.

In a flat-fee model, most of the innovative energy goes into reducing costs rather than developing services that customers value.

Heartland Payment Systems Inc. is prepared to pass along what it calls “Durbin Dollars” to its merchant clients.

An aggressive push by the Justice Department to investigate fair lending claims is prompting a backlash from bankers who claim the government is abusing its authority.

The proposed Qualified Residential Mortgage rules have a better chance at harming the housing market than they have at addressing underlying weaknesses in the securitization process. They are an overreaction to the excessive risk-taking during the housing boom.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau opened its doors July 21, a day after this nation commemorated the anniversary of the first manned mission to the moon. And just like Neil Armstrong maneuvered over the moon’s rocky surface, the government’s newest agency might present the payments industry with some uneven terrain to navigate.

A Michigan retiree who has sued more than three dozen credit unions and banks over the surcharge-fee notification requirements of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act has convinced ELGA CU to settle one suit by paying as much as $76,000 to nonmembers who used six of its ATMs that lacked the mandated external notice of a surcharge.

First Data said it would refer its bank and credit union clients to IronKey for software to protect users from fraud when banking online.

Financial services firms may want to be more discriminating when it comes to choosing their battles, rather than protesting and shouting any time a new piece of regulation is proposed. Old arguments about economic impact don't outweigh safety concerns surrounding systemically important institutions.

After years of worrying about the bad lending decisions and illiquidity that started the crisis, we must face the structural problem prolonging the crisis and preventing the economy from recovering fully.

Discover Financial Services' strategy to diversify beyond credit cards suffered a setback as the lender's deal to buy $1.1 billion in banking deposits from Allstate Corp. has fallen through.

A woman who sued a collection law firm for twice attempting to garnish her wages for a debt she did not owe was awarded $1.26 million, according to a ruling Friday by a federal jury in New Mexico.

Integra Bank in Evansville, Ind., was closed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, after fighting to survive for nearly two years.

Never, ever, give Twitter accounts to stockbrokers. If you give thousands of commission-based sales people access to broadcast media, someone is bound to say something stupid.

Growth rates have approached levels observed during the onset of the financial crisis in 2008.

Many commentators ignore this part of the central bank's job and think any bank that gets liquidity from the Federal Reserve is a failed bank.

WASHINGTON — Scott Polakoff, the former acting director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, has joined FinPro Inc.

Rep. Barney Frank took a moment on the House floor this week to ask why there was such opposition to making Elizabeth Warren the head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

"The Daily Show" host decided to focus his attention on the one-year anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act by inviting the law to appear on his show.

In e-mail to staff, the de facto agency head praises employees and looks to the future.