Law and regulation

Wells Fargo and two other companies must repay customers more than $30 million in mutual-fund-related overcharges, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said Monday.

On top of dealing with cyber threats and other potential dangers to banks, CROs are deeply involved these days in discussions over investing in new products and business lines.

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.

Bank regulators should improve their collection of data on information security incidents at financial institutions and facilitate better information-gathering about industrywide cyber threats, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said Thursday.

Allowing real estate investment trusts to bridge the capital need for affordable housing could help de-escalate a rising public funding crisis.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is generally coordinating with prudential regulators on supervisory issues to avoid duplicating responsibilities, but communication between the agencies can still be improved, the CFPB's watchdog said Thursday.

Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights wants to recapitalize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to provide a secure source of funding for affordable housing.

The former FDIC chairman said during a recent conference call that banks with a traditional model — essentially community banks — have been hurt by the Fed's interest rate policy and the trickle-down tactics of regulation.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency wants to exclude mortgage real estate investment trusts from membership in the Federal Home Loan Banks. That would be a major setback for the entry-level borrowers who depend on mortgage REITs for sustainable home-financing options.

President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Act five years ago this month, but the battle over the law's impact and legacy goes on. Several top lawmakers spoke to American Banker about how their views have evolved since the law's passage. Here are some highlights from those conversations.

Cyber threats or fraud may present bigger direct risks to banks, but many chief risk officers spend enormous amounts of time on the more tangible concern of keeping up with ever-growing regulatory expectations and requirements.

The chief executive officers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may see more than a sixfold increase in their compensation to $4 million in spite of objections from President Barack Obama's administration and some lawmakers.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is ordering two vendors that sell credit card add-on products to pay nearly $10 million in combined fines and restitution for allegedly charging consumers for services never rendered.

BancorpSouth in Tupelo, Miss., has again extended the deadline to complete its acquisitions of Central Community in Temple, Texas, and Ouachita Bancshares in Monroe, La.

The narrowing gap between what large and small lenders pay in guarantee fees to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has helped the industry's smallest originators grow their share of mortgages sold to the government-sponsored enterprises.

In the aftermath of passage of a sweeping law like Dodd-Frank, sharp divisions are common. What's unusual is the way the divide has persisted five years later, and in many ways has even hardened.

Blythe Masters, the former JPMorgan Chase executive, has joined the advisory board of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, a Bitcoin trade association created to represent the young industry's interests in Washington.

A role many people did not understand less than a decade ago has become integral to how banks navigate a new set of postcrisis hazards.

The financial crisis and its aftermath elevated the stature of CROs. The true test of their new clout will come during the next market expansion.

American Banker Research conducted a detailed online survey of 49 risk management executives from our readership as part of the inaugural C-Suite Series. The respondents included risk managers from banks with over $10 billion in assets all the way down to institutions with less than $100 million in assets. Questions covered topics from where risk officers devote the most attention to what roles they see themselves taking on next. The survey reveals executives' significant focus on regulatory risk and that boards are being responsive to concerns raised by chief risk officers. Here are highlights from the research.