Law and regulation

Now is not the time for the Federal Housing Administration — which has stayed strong amid turmoil — to reduce its market share.

House Republicans attacked the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday, arguing the agency is not able to safely secure the anonymous bulk data it collects on consumers' financial activities.

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Wednesday that it has hired Mary McLeod to become the agency's new general counsel starting next year.

Credit risk, interest rate risk and cybersecurity concerns pose growing risks to banks in the first half of 2016, according to a semiannual risk report issued Wednesday by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

The banking industry had mixed opinions of the Fed's decision to boost rates. Most believe 25 basis points will do little to move the needle financially, but they are apprehensive about the impact more increases will have on deposits, lending and credit quality. Here is a sampling of what bankers have said in recent days.

Despite months of intense lobbying, the banking industry failed to secure a number of key reforms in Congress's must-pass spending package, unveiled Tuesday night.

Bank officials say they are ready for rising rates; disagree on how much the initial increase would help or hurt lending and the economy; and predict more rate increases next year.

The Federal Open Market Committee Wednesday voted to raise federal interest rates from nearly zero for the first time since 2008, meeting market expectations but ushering in a new and uncertain normal for the banking industry.

The central bank's "total loss absorbing capacity" proposal must be reworked to ensure that costs of huge failures don't fall on society at large.

Developing banking solutions for lower-income consumers means getting to the heart of the financial volatility they face trying to make ends meet.

Fearless forecasts from BankThink's stable of industry veterans, experts and critics.

The agency released a plan Tuesday that would provide incentives for owners of manufactured housing communities to reform their practices if they want to tap financing by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's unexpected move to require the largest banks to develop a "recovery plan" has raised questions about why the agency is moving now and how its mandate differs from regulatory requirements for institutions to develop "living wills."

A decline in bank failures and improving stability across the financial industry helped persuade the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to approve a 4.7% reduction in its 2016 operating budget on Tuesday.

The report said that so far the threats remain contained and do not pose a clear and present danger to the economy. But that could change quickly.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency unveiled a new proposal Tuesday that would detail how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should serve three underserved markets: manufactured housing, affordable housing preservation and rural markets.

The recent ineffectiveness of Federal Reserve monetary policy and macroprudential rules begs the question whether the Fed needs to revise recent bank regulations, its own mission or both.

After Wall Street has spent years trying to convincing regulators how they could collapse without disrupting the financial system, the largest U.S. banks will soon have to take the additional step of showing how they can keep from failing in the first place.

The agency has struggled with how to regulate small-dollar and payday loans in recent years, pushing back its own deadline several times for completing a proposed rulemaking. That could be because the plan is so sweeping, some said.

Over the past three decades William Cooper has led TCF Financial through two crises and reinvented the bank to keep it profitable. He also sued the Federal Reserve in the aftermath of the financial crisis, for imposing a cap on debit card fees. For his strong leadership in the industry — as well as his candid, off-the-cuff style — American Banker has named him its lifetime achievement honoree.