Law and regulation

Financial services issues that helped define a presidency were largely absent from Tuesday's State of the Union address, including the crucial policy items that have not yet been resolved.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision released the text of its anticipated revised market risk framework on Thursday, one of the last and most important remaining unfinished aspects of the 2010 Basel III accords.

Nine former officers and directors accused of hiding problems at Superior Bank in Birmingham, Ala., will pay more than $1 million in penalties as part of settlements with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Lending continues to improve overall across the Federal Reserve’s regional banks but the level of demand varies significantly across the country, according to the Fed’s most recent Beige Book released Wednesday.

The conventional wisdom is that MetLife is breaking itself up partly as a response to its designation as a systemically important company. But there is significant evidence that's wrong — here's why.

U.S. lawmakers called for federal investigations into Clayton Homes, the mobile-home business at Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, after the Seattle Times and BuzzFeed News wrote that the company targeted minority borrowers and charged them higher interest rates on average than whites.

President Obama's administration, citing concern about the origin of funds used for all-cash purchases of luxury real estate, said it is stepping up scrutiny of transactions in New York City and Miami.

The project is likely to be mirrored at banks around the country as the automated clearing house evolves from settling payments in three to five days currently to same-day settlement in September and faster payments beyond that.

The project is likely to be mirrored at banks around the country as the automated clearing house evolves from settling payments in three to five days currently to same-day settlement in September and faster payments beyond that.

As fintech pitches itself as the future of consumer financial services to bankers, regulators, legislative staffers and journalists, it's not enough to claim that innovations are better. We nontechies want an explanation why, in layman's terms.

Republican lawmakers agree with Obama that outdated regulations need to be changed, but were pessimistic that the administration would support efforts to roll back the compliance burden on banks.

Community bankers and credit unions scored a significant victory while others in the mortgage industry lost out in the Federal Housing Finance Agency's final rule establishing membership standards for the Home Loan banks.

The insurance giant MetLife dropped a bombshell on Tuesday, saying it would separate a "substantial portion" of its U.S. retail segment, in part because of the current economic and regulatory environment.

MetLife plans to separate much of its U.S. retail business as Chief Executive Officer Steve Kandarian works to shrink the company to limit federal oversight.

Legislation to audit the Federal Reserve's monetary policy fell short of the 60 votes necessary to win a key procedural motion in the Senate on Tuesday.

The agency scrapped a part of its 2014 proposal that would have required Home Loan bank members to maintain a certain percentage of residential mortgage assets in order to keep their membership. But it held fast on a provision that would disqualify captive insurance firms from membership.

Digital and alternative currencies are often cast as libertarian-friendly payment vehicles whose very mission engenders government antagonism. But in Canada, things are a bit friendlier.

Convictions of big banks have lacked any tangible consequences for perpetrators, leaving many still doubting that the government is serious about prosecuting large firms.

Raising capital has been tough for community banks ever since the financial crisis, especially the smallest ones. But a few firms have developed structured products that offer banks a chance to band together to raise needed Tier 1 capital at relatively low cost, while avoiding the regulatory ire that befell trust-preferred securities.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is using outdated methodologies to define "brokered deposits," stigmatizing stable sources of funding and forcing banks to pay higher premiums, according to bankers and several outside groups.