Law and regulation

Bank of the Orient in San Francisco has received a federal cease-and-desist order because of shortcomings in its compliance with anti-money-laundering rules.

The case against Adrian Rubin offers a tour through lenders' efforts, dating back to the late 1990s, to avoid state-by-state interest-rate caps.

Just as U.S. regulators shy from labeling individual asset management firms as systemic, an international group of securities regulators is similarly abandoning a firm-by-firm approach.

New Jersey will soon have a new banking commissioner.

Risk-based premiums should apply to big banks as well as small ones. That's because the assessment would have an immediate impact on big banks' quarterly profits, thereby appropriately charging them for the competitive advantage and privilege afforded by their size.

A top official who handles employee discrimination complaints at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is among the "whistle-blower" testifying before Congress on Thursday.

Congress should avoid becoming so focused on the problems with big banks that they overlook the community lenders suffering from a lack of regulatory relief.

The powerful Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is helping to reshape mortgage and payday lending, but its attempts to curb abuses in auto lending have been largely stymied by the clout of car dealers and the fragmented nature of auto finance.

Regulators finalized a rule Monday requiring banks to escrow flood insurance premiums and fees for loans on real estate located in a flood zone.

The Dodd-Frank Act called on regulators to develop ways to assess diversity practices in the financial sector, but the guidelines are getting panned by critics who say they do not go far enough.

A House Financial Services subcommittee will hold a hearing Thursday on employee allegations of discrimination and retaliation at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The regulatory path may also be bumpier for P-to-P lenders that focus on subprime borrowers, predicts Raj Date, a former second-in-command at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The Canadian Senate Banking, Trade and Commerce committee has issued a report encouraging "a light regulatory touch — almost a hands-off approach" to regulating digital currencies.

Determining regulatory requirements based on banks’ activities rather than their size would liberate old-school institutions from unnecessary burdens without endangering the financial system.

While regulators worldwide have urged banks not to "derisk" by cutting off entire industries or geographies, it is rare for policymakers to specifically cite this controversial sector as wrongly underserved.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including the need to hold bankers accountable for criminal deeds and whether the FDIC's proposed recordkeeping requirement is smart planning or pointless.

BB&T's auto-finance division will stop dealers from marking up the price on sales contracts, and instead will offer a flat-fee compensation program.

Many lenders may not have been ready for the CFPB's new mortgage disclosure rule if it took effect on Aug. 1 as planned. Now a slip-up by the agency itself has given lenders a two-month reprieve.

The Consumer Services division of Washington state's Department of Financial Institutions has accused Quicken Loans of sending false claims in direct mail advertising to military members.

Pressure from community groups forced Valley National Bancorp to strengthen its commitment to lend in low-and moderate-income neighborhoods in order to win approval for a Florida acquisition. Other banks, too, are now placing CRA efforts front-and-center as they aim to sell deals to the public and their regulators.