Law and regulation

The half-a-percentage-point reduction in the Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance premium provided a bigger pop to the housing market than expected, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics.

Bank executives and outside experts finger technology as the area most in need of improvement when it comes to vetting financial institutions' ability to withstand the next bit economic shock.

A shorter, less burdensome and more sensible call report is an important step toward reducing community banks' regulatory burden.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including banks' subpar shareholder value and how big-data advocates can better communicate with critics who worry about the technology's potential discriminatory effects.

Community banks are hoping regulators' recent decision to drop certain items from call reports is just the beginning of supervisory efforts to streamline the forms to reduce their burden.

The U.S. Treasury announced some limited changes to its sanctions regime against Cuba, allowing banks to open accounts for Cuban nationals outside Cuba and eliminating some restrictions on those accounts.

Lenders and vendors found no bad surprises in the Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act integrated disclosure exam guidance, but it didn't clarify much industry confusion either.

The government’s cap on interchange fees has failed to produce savings for consumers. That’s why the Federal Reserve should avoid dictating prices in the private sector.

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 from our social media platforms.

In a series of internal documents that were reviewed by American Banker, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau officials repeatedly acknowledge its methodology could overcount the potential discrimination by firms, but say they prefer that to the alternative where bias is underestimated.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s involvement in the Justice Department's Operation Choke Point was minor, the agency's inspector general said Thursday.

The possibility that Congress may fail to pass a spending bill by the end of this month or not raise the debt ceiling had no bearing on the Federal Reserve Board’s decision to maintain its accommodative monetary policy, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said Thursday.

Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, said Thursday that he would not run for office in 2016.

Interest rates are still at zero, and banks will still be OK — though they may have to do a little scrambling. That could mean a shift away from short-term, rate-sensitive assets, or yet another round of cost-cutting.

House lawmakers from both parties had tough words Thursday for the National Credit Union Administration about its revised risk-based capital proposal.

Promontory Financial Group has hired former Citigroup and Bank of America executive Eugene McQuade.

Federal Reserve officials left interest rates unchanged, opting to delay an increase amid stubbornly low inflation, an uncertain outlook for global growth and recent financial-market turmoil.

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of senators reintroduced a bill Wednesday that would prohibit lawmakers from using certain housing finance fees to offset unrelated government spending.

Not only do rules imposed under the Dodd-Frank Act threaten regional banks' lending capabilities, they could actually wind up increasing risk to the financial system.

Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and David Vitter, R-La., the lead sponsors of a bill to place more explicit limits on the Federal Reserve's emergency lending powers, say the bill is getting quashed by a full-court press from banking interests.