Law and regulation

The Independent Community Bankers of America said that it agrees with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s support for “responsible innovation” in fintech but that it worries marketplace lenders have a “regulatory advantage.”

We need to adopt a more nuanced view of credit that considers not only the cost of credit, but also the cost of default and the cost of having no credit.

The drumbeat of news about hackers stealing millions of dollars by gaming the Swift interbank messaging system should have been a wake-up call for banking executives, but it's unclear how many of them answered it. Is it too late for them to shore up their defenses?

While existing state laws show that payday lending curbs lead to positive outcomes, those laws will still benefit from a strong Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule.

The Federal Reserve detected more than 50 breaches of its computer systems from 2011 to 2015, Reuters reported, adding to signs that the central bank may be vulnerable to hackers or spies.

Ties to the energy sector hurt the banking industry in the first quarter as earnings fell 1.9% to $39.1 billion compared with a year earlier, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Wednesday.

Several civil rights and community development groups wrote Tuesday to urge the Federal Housing Finance Agency to recapitalize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Community Business Bank in West Sacramento, Calif., has finally put the Troubled Asset Relief Program in the past.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Housing Finance Agency is set to make the sales of nonperforming loans by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac more transparent, including providing information on trends at the individual pool level, according to a top agency official.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will unveil sweeping federal regulations Thursday for payday lenders that could open the door for competition from banks, while forcing lenders to move toward longer-term installment loans. Here's what to track when the plan is released.

Allison Aytes, a former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. employee in its Office of Complex Financial Institutions, is under investigation by federal authorities for allegedly stealing big banks' living will data on her last day of employment.

The idea that restricted access to loans for poor-credit borrowers is unequivocally a bad thing is based on industry talking points that don't stand up to real-world scrutiny.

A recent spate of breaches on Asian banks that allowed hackers access to the Swift network have resulted in finger pointing, and some calls for creating a new, more secure network. But the issues faced by Swift would likely be the same with any replacement network.

Carver Bancorp in New York has entered into a formal agreement with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that includes mandates tied to the Bank Secrecy Act and commercial real estate.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other federal banking agencies should do more to protect consumers with limited English proficiency, a report from Americans for Financial Reform says.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve will vote next week on whether to publish a blueprint for capital requirements for insurance firms under its supervision and insurance companies designated as systemically risky.

The Federal Reserve has been conducting annual stress tests on the biggest banks' liquidity since 2012 — tests the banks largely support. But as the Fed advances new liquidity rules, they're starting to question why more rules are necessary.

Banks have rushed to the exits when it comes to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debt securities. Federal liquidity rules seem to be prompting big banks to do so, but why small banks are unloading the bonds, too, is more of a puzzler.

In addition to credit risk from leveraged loans and other types of assets, an added worry for participations is how they would be treated in a failure of the originating bank.

Many appraisers are charging more or simply refusing to do FHA work, which to their minds now comes close to, if not crossing into, the remit of the home inspector.