Law and regulation

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including how postal banking could help low-income people in the U.S. and the continuing debate over interchange fees.

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The collaboration between financial institutions and technology firms runs deep, but banks' recent criticism of lax regulatory oversight for nonbanks reveals fissures.

House Speaker John Boehner's surprising announcement reduces the odds of an imminent government shutdown, but raises fresh questions about several key banking priorities.

The CFPB is rewriting the rules for debt collection, and in the meantime fines and penalties are coming fast and furiously. Banks need to closely scrutinize every debt collector and debt buyer they do business with, or even bring collections back in-house, said attorney Joann Needleman.

Lenders that allow borrowers to shop for third-party settlement services face new liability, as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's integrated mortgage disclosure rules will let borrowers sue over problems with vendor lists.

Politicians who support the idea of banking as a public utility may not be very concerned with the fate of community banks. Rather than say so directly, they gloss over the facts.

American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. Comments are excerpted from reader response sections of AmericanBanker.com articles and our social media platforms.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has struggled internally with how to end potential discrimination in auto lending, including debating whether it should cite a large lender in the hopes of effectively ending the ability of partnering dealers to mark up loans with all lenders.

Bank of New York Mellon will pay $335 million to clients claiming the bank defrauded them in foreign- exchange transactions for as long as a decade, after a judge granted final approval to a settlement reached in March.

Officials signaled that Hudson City Savings Bank's nearly $33 million settlement over redlining charges is only the first in what is likely to be a string of other cases.

Federal officials on Thursday ordered Hudson City Savings Bank to pay more than $27 million to resolve redlining allegations, the largest order of its kind and one that is likely to put larger banks on notice that redlining cases will be aggressively pursued.

American banks long ago deserted their most impoverished communities. Today, post offices are uniquely well positioned to serve the underbanked population — and perhaps reinvigorate a culture of saving in the process.

The National Association of Convenience Stores’ latest column on debit-card interchange fees is the most recent in the organization’s years-long effort to obtain government-mandated price controls. But such controls would only increase large retailers’ profits.

A task force convened by the Federal Reserve has made substantial progress in its first few months, but the path to real-time payment in the U.S. is still littered with challenges.

GOP presidential contender Jeb Bush unveiled a plan to reform the regulatory process, including at agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The Federal Reserve Board has approved enhancements to its automated clearing house service that will require its banks to process same-day payments.

The Senate passed a bill this week by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., designed to improve transparency around major corporate settlements.

The only way to evaluate the appropriateness of Dodd-Frank's costs is to monitor the economic benefits that it creates. That's why the government needs to find a quantifiable way to measure the efficiency of its regulations.

It's time for the Fed to stop giving deference to the banking industry and correct the industry's swipe fee increases on small-ticket transactions.