Law and regulation

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council has released updated cybersecurity guidance for bank examiners.

In an interview Friday morning, Federal Reserve Gov. Daniel Tarullo said that enforcement agencies and even the Department of Justice need to hold individuals accountable amid revelations that thousands of Wells Fargo employees opened illegal accounts for customers.

Nellie Liang, director of the Federal Reserve's Division of Financial Stability, has announced her retirement after 30 years with the central bank.

The settlement underscored how incentives and sales goals led employees to illegally open new accounts, transfer customer money to the accounts, and create PIN numbers and emails without customers' authorization, regulators said.

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council has released updated cybersecurity guidance for bank examiners.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board's accounting rules for credit risk have good intentions, but a likely amplification of the ups and downs of the credit market was probably not one of them.

Wells Fargo’s reputation as a consumer-friendly bank suffered a significant blow Thursday after it agreed to pay $190 million to settle charges that thousands of employees created unauthorized bank and credit card accounts for customers in order to collect bonuses for themselves.

In response to industry comments, the Federal Reserve said it would follow notice-and-comment procedures when exercising its countercyclical capital buffer authorities – a process whereby the biggest banks would hold an additional capital cushion to counteract overheated markets.

WASHINGTON – The House Financial Services Committee will vote on a bill Tuesday that has been touted as a Dodd-Frank alternative and will likely set the marker for financial reform debates in the next Congress.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. would be among banks most impacted in recommendations issued Thursday by U.S. banking agencies that seek an end to merchant banking and a limit on Wall Street's ownership of physical commodities.

Within five years, a dramatic transformation of the mortgage market will force firms to expand product menus beyond mortgages to develop stronger relationships with their customers.

A likely sale of CIT Group's aircraft unit (and a whole lot of other stuff) is keeping Ellen Alemany busy, a former Wall Street banker talks about big data as a financial weapon of mass discrimination targeting women and the poor, and First Busey shows how investing in employees pays off. Also, TIAA's Kathie Andrade, Deloitte's Cathy Engelbert and (to spice things up) Victoria Beckham.

A rising number of banks are looking to become community development financial institutions, emboldened by low-cost capital and an exemption from the ability-to-repay rule.

Wells Fargo has agreed to pay $187.5 million to settle claims by federal regulators that the megabank wrongfully opened unauthorized bank and credit card accounts for more than 2 million customers.

Wells Fargo has agreed to pay $187.5 million to settle claims by federal regulators that the megabank wrongfully opened unauthorized bank and credit card accounts for more than 2 million customers.

Banks are making it easier to get approved for a checking account. But once-banished customers may not be able to use some of the features that made having an account attractive in the first place.

It's the hot new address for an old Wall Street machine: 1209 North Orange Street. There, in Wilmington, Delaware, several giants of American finance have established powerful outposts.

Without incentives to shoot higher, banks usually settle for "Satisfactory" on their Community Reinvestment Act exams, but many find that not getting a better grade has consequences.

Though the Federal Housing Finance Agency has yet to provide full details about its new refinancing program to be launched next year, some analysts and industry observers are already convinced it will have only a limited impact.

Demand for lending services grew overall in the last six weeks but was more keenly felt in some regions while others remained stagnant, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Federal Reserve Board.