Law and regulation

Returning Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to their status as privately owned public utilities is consistent with their mandate and makes the most policy sense.

In the wake of the Bitfinex heist, protecting consumers must again be at the forefront of the digital currency community.

The situation turns on whether the CFTC inadvertently pushed Bitfinex to adopt a weaker security system than it had been using. However, the way the bitcoin exchange used the new system was significantly flawed, security experts said.

A proposed 50% expansion to the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program would yield new opportunities for banks to finance development projects and meet their Community Reinvestment Act obligations.

The Federal Reserve Wednesday fined Goldman Sachs $36.3 million in civil penalties and moved to bar a former executive from the banking industry in connection with a leak of supervisory information from the New York Fed in 2014.

JPMorgan Chase has reached a settlement with Indiana regulators related to its asset management business, and now other states are expressing interest in how Indiana built its case.

WASHINGTON — Federal bank regulators issued guidelines Tuesday for submissions outlining workplace diversity initiatives.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has signed a housing reform bill that will open the door for welfare recipients to use federal rent vouchers to purchase manufactured homes and become homeowners.

WASHINGTON — State bank associations threw their support behind a regulatory relief bill on Tuesday in hopes the legislation can gain traction in the Senate.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is raising concerns about potential spillover effects from depressed oil prices even as banks had sounded more optimistic. Tougher capital requirements for energy lenders could be on the horizon.

WASHINGTON — Regulators announced Tuesday that they are giving large banks with less than $100 billion in assets an additional year to file their living wills.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau added its voice Tuesday to a chorus of other regulators in calling for sustainable foreclosure relief when the Home Affordable Modification Program expires at yearend.

In a political season teeming with tension around income inequality, racial economic disparities and animus toward the banking industry, reforming the Community Reinvestment Act seems like it should be a cornerstone of the debate. Yet the law has been almost entirely absent from the discussion. Here's why.

Benefiting from higher loan guarantee income and lower derivative losses, Freddie Mac said Tuesday it had made $993 million in the second quarter, a dramatic reversal from its $354 million loss a quarter earlier.

JPMorgan Chase's contract to provide debit cards to inmates released from federal prison is backfiring after the bank agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by inmates who said they were charged exorbitant fees to access their money.

In a perfect world, better financial literacy — along with equipping bankers with ethical standards — would make the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau obsolete.

WASHINGTON – Lending standards for most business and residential real estate loans as well as subprime consumer loans are tighter than the 10-year average, according to a survey of senior bank loan officers released by the Federal Reserve Board.

In a board action late last week, the agency proposed a number of changes, including softening the exam appeals process, in response to recommendations by the FDIC Office of Inspector General. It also asked banks to pay particular attention to their relationships with third-party lenders.

European bank regulators should get out of the way and let banks there "do their job," JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said.

The linchpin of the federal government's payday lending proposal is a credit-reporting system for small-dollar loans created by the private sector, but the kinds of companies that could create it haven't stepped forward.