Law and regulation

If impending rules on overdraft protection go too far, banks could intentionally pull back on providing the service to illustrate just how useful it is.

From exposés of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's wrangling with auto lenders to analyses of the banks' technological experimentation and retooling, these are American Banker's most popular stories of 2015.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is important, but it barely scratches the surface of former House Financial Services Committee Chairman Michael Oxley's impact on banking.

U.S. judge rejects Quicken Loans' effort to move FHA loan case to Detroit courtroom.

The presidential race is likely to overshadow most political events in 2016 as the first primary states begin voting in February. Accordingly, many of the people on this list are candidates who could win the presidency in November, or at least have the chance to shape the outcome. But there are also some guaranteed players already in place whose actions will help shape banking policy in the year to come. Here are the top 10 to watch.

The 10 most popular BankThink posts of 2015, based on audience page views.

Banks can help ease a severe national shortage in affordable rental properties — and make money doing it.

Opportunities abound, in affordable housing, capital raising, consumer lending and more. We aim to get you thinking about how new developments on many fronts could affect your business as you plan for the coming year and beyond.

Mike Oxley, the former U.S. congressman who co-sponsored the landmark Sarbanes-Oxley Act requiring corporate executives to vouch for company financials in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom accounting scandals, has died, age 71.

Dilip Ratha, an economist at the World Bank, shows how the power of a simple remittance sent from one family member to another could be magnified to improve the lives of poor people.

A former M&T Bank executive was sentenced to 39 months prison time for leading a fraudulent scheme involving about $5.3 million in small-business loans.

The Dodd-Frank Act is a burden on community banks and credit unions but regulators are struggling to quantify the costs, according to a report released Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office.

Lawmakers are expected to debate a number of key banking provisions this year, even with the November elections on the horizon.

East West Bancorp in Pasadena, Calif., paid $118.4 million to terminate single-family and commercial shared-loss agreements with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., tied to an acquisition of a failed bank.

A federal judge is urging the parties of a closely watched pot-banking case to settle their dispute.

Recent comments by Russell Golden, chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, raise questions about the board's plans to change bank accounting standards.

A new digital currency backed by gold is billing itself as a more compliant, liquid and ultimately reliable store of value than decentralized systems such as bitcoin.

Regulators and institutions appear far apart when it comes to so-called "de-risking," in which banks drop businesses for fear of enhanced regulatory scrutiny, even while policymakers are stepping up their scrutiny of terrorist financing prevention in the wake of recent attacks.

An overhaul of money-market funds, years in the making and fiercely opposed by the financial sector, will take effect in 2016. There's little debating that the new rules will be bad for some banks, but they could also create new opportunities for small and mid-sized banks in need of cheaper funding.

A federal judge is urging the parties of a closely watched pot-banking case to settle their dispute.