Law and regulation

FHFA Director Mel Watt acknowledged that the principal reduction program may seem "too small and too late."

Rather than rush its proposal to regulate short-term lenders, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should carefully weigh the consequences of potentially driving lenders out of the market.

Two U.S. regulators said that tougher rules to strengthen the nation's financial system had not impaired the functioning of the bond market, and even if liquidity may have been affected for some types of securities, this was balanced by the benefit of safer banks.

The bad grades and detailed laundry list of fixes that institutions must make in the next five months — or face possibly severe consequences — may actually prove helpful in the long run, both to the debate over "too big to fail" and the banks themselves. Here's why.

House Republicans moved two bills through committee on Wednesday that would each roll back key provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act.

The Office of Financial Research, an agency tasked with examining emerging threats to the financial system, said in a paper released Wednesday that U.S. global systemically important banks remain among the riskiest in the world, though risks from Chinese banks are growing the fastest.

U.S. regulators have asked their internal watchdogs to examine how assessments of banks' plans for winding down during a potential bankruptcy ended up in a news article.

Noah Bank in in Elkins Park, Pa., has sued NOA Bank in Duluth, Ga., in a dispute between two Korean-American banks over trademarks and competitive intelligence.

In declaring that five U.S. banks' resolution plans were "noncredible," regulators provided new details on exactly what each institution did wrong, as well as what Citi and others did right. Here's what they said.

The decision blocking the Financial Stability Oversight Council's designation of MetLife was presaged in factual and legal arguments made by trade associations and others for more than five years.

Regulators struck down the living wills of five of the eight megabanks under evaluation, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, requiring them to submit fixes to their resolution plans by Oct. 1 or face more stringent regulatory requirements.

WASHINGTON — The House passed a bill Tuesday that would create a new bankruptcy system for large financial institutions.

The Federal Reserve Board and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. are set to give at least four megabanks a "harsh verdict" on their living wills, including JPMorgan Chase, according to an article by The Wall Street Journal, which cited "people familiar with the matter."

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. should rethink the review process for big banks' resolution plans, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Tuesday.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau named six people to top staff positions Tuesday, including the head of a new office for small-business lending.

Quicken Loans plans to appeal a recent federal labor ruling that the Detroit lender and other companies owned by Dan Gilbert violated employees' rights.

WASHINGTON — The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released Tuesday its first risk appetite statement — a set of general guidelines on what level of risk the agency finds acceptable in various domains.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau faced hostile questions from two judges during oral arguments before a federal appeals court Tuesday as it sought to argue the constitutionality of its single-director structure in a lawsuit brought by the nonbank mortgage lender PHH Corp.

Data breaches have become scarily commonplace. But even small financial institutions can take action to thwart hackers and minimize losses.

The impending Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposal will limit access to payday lending but it will not enable small-dollar lending alternatives for consumers.