Law and regulation

WASHINGTON — Certain indicators of financial risk appear to be getting worse, including term premiums for Treasury bonds and dealer inventories of fixed-income assets, according to the Office of Financial Research.

Colorado has named a new state banking commissioner, after an interim commissioner has held the job for almost 18 months.

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.

Banks need to take a hard look at the age-old practice of using signatures to authenticate card payments, Federal Reserve Gov. Jerome Powell said Thursday.

Despite some silver lining, analysts say the Supreme Court decision upholding "disparate impact" in fair-lending disputes will only embolden activists and regulators to bring more cases.

During a hearing Thursday, Democrats wanted to talk about anything but allegations of employee discrimination at the CFPB raised by recent American Banker articles. Instead, they wanted to focus on alleged discrimination by banks and other companies.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau went forward with a controversial move Thursday to include narratives in its complaint database.

If Congress fails to extend the Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Relief Act, thousands of homeowners still suffering from the effects of the housing crisis could be forced to pay federal income tax on loan modifications or foreclosures.

First Mariner Bank in Baltimore has been released from a six-year-old enforcement action, after the bank filed for bankruptcy last year and was acquired by a group of Baltimore investors.

In a huge win for housing advocates and a setback for the banking industry, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the use of "disparate impact" in a Texas case alleging housing-related discrimination.

In their ongoing quest to undo the most burdensome provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act, bankers invite lawmakers to spend a day in their branches.

Enterprise risk management is an area banks are trying to master, and the appointment of a chief risk officer to oversee this effort has become common, even among community banks. We asked CROs and other experts for their perspectives on this evolving role, the skills needed to do the job well and their biggest worries.

Witnesses testifying on Capitol Hill said legislation requiring incorporating companies to state true owner information would combat launderers.

A senior civil rights official at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is poised to tell Congress Thursday that the agency willfully disregards the process for handling internal employee complaints of discrimination and has repeatedly retaliated against staff who spoke out.

Two groups representing small and mid-size lenders say new proposed state mortgage servicing standards for nonbanks will add an unnecessary layer of regulatory burden, especially for firms servicing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new mortgage integrated disclosure rules will now take effect Saturday, Oct. 3, two days later than the previously rescheduled Oct. 1 deadline.

Bankers and commercial real estate developers are protesting new restrictions on construction lending, arguing they are poised to hurt credit availability and drive loans into risky, unregulated sectors.

The growing popularity of impact investing has led to a raft of new disclosure rules. The problem is that using the SEC to monitor companies' CEO pay policies and use of "conflict minerals" decouples the government agency's authority from its area of jurisdiction.

Senate Democrats are urging regulators to investigate potential discrimination in how banks and other financial institutions handle and market foreclosed homes.

A number of class-action lawsuits allege that investment advisers breached fiduciary duty by failing to recommend the least expensive products. But both trust law and investment theory acknowledge that responsible advisers take other factors into consideration.