Law and regulation

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau likely will focus on the mortgage industry when it officially opens its doors July 21, some observers believe. And while the agency has made it known it will examine the prepaid card market, its specific intentions remains unclear.

Looking at the big picture items, it is clear there have been significant strides in some areas, while others have stalled or been ignored entirely.

Secretary of the Treasury Geithner's failed advice to the President Obama on how to solve the foreclosure crisis has apparently caused the president to reconsider prevention options.

Richard Berner, a counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, told members of a House Financial Services subcommittee that the new Office of Financial Research is "working diligently to satisfy its statutory mandates and mission."

Warren, now leading the formation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said while the new regulator reserves the right to halt marketing of financial services that are not consumer-friendly, there is no need for such a prohibition from the outset.

Moody's Investors Service said late Wednesday its decision to put the U.S. government's debt on review for possible downgrade could have implications for certain rated residential mortgage products.

The article "Fed Up with Talk, Bankers Try Reining in Regulators" really has me fed up.

What government with a population of 37 million, a GDP of $1.8 trillion and a widely derided political class has great trouble paying its debts?

WASHINGTON — The White House said Wednesday that President Obama would not sign any appropriations bill that would undermine the Dodd-Frank Act through funding limits.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers Wednesday that fixing the nation's housing finance system remains "the main piece of unfinished business" in financial regulatory policy.

A research paper calling for a pull back nowhere is it disclosed that the paper was at least partially underwritten by the private mortgage insurance giant Genworth Financial Inc., which stands to benefit from a pull back in the market by FHA.

A Government Accountability Office report Wednesday said proprietary trading has produced a relatively small share of revenues at the six largest banks, but the study quickly came under fire from two senators who called the GAO's findings thin.

Re: "Conspiracy Theories on Low Failure Rate Don't Hold Water"

The slowdown in bank failures has conspiracy theorists looking for a cause, but the truth is likely a lot less exciting: The slowdown may simply reflect a stabilized industry.

Merchants will have a difficult time reaping all the benefits they stand to gain from a pending antitrust settlement between the two largest U.S. credit card networks and the U.S. Department of Justice, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

WASHINGTON — A Democratic lawmaker Wednesday alleged that Republican members of a special financial-crisis investigation panel were driven more by politics than by probing the causes of the crisis.

WASHINGTON — A House Financial Services subcommittee late Tuesday approved six bills that would rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac but that fall short of comprehensive changes to the housing finance system.

WASHINGTON — Without a permanent director in place, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau gave fair warning Tuesday it plans to start monitoring the industry's largest banks for consumer abuses in just over a week.

In recent weeks we have been treated to several regulatory observations and preliminary decisions about the appropriate level of bank capital. A few comments have come from U. S. bank regulators. A major recent pronouncement came from the Bank for International Settlements, more commonly known by the name of the Swiss city where the bank is located — Basel.

The largest bank holding company in the U.S. is shooting for only 7% of Basel III Tier 1 common equity. Come again?