Law and regulation

Trading revenues at commercial banks and thrifts took a dive in the fourth quarter but largely because of seasonal trends, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said Wednesday.

As the industry's recovery boosts hopes of new-bank activity, some are already focused on what the greater stability could mean for the embattled industrial loan company charter.

The administration's new step empowers Treasury to freeze assets of those behind attacks that harm the U.S. financial system or other "critical" infrastructures.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency appointed Richard Taft to be its next deputy comptroller for credit risk.

Federal regulators announced Tuesday they approved Wells Fargo’s process for complying with risk-based capital requirements under the “advanced approaches” framework of the international Basel III regime.

The fight over the Dodd-Frank Act's $50 billion threshold will determine whether some banks get a respite from tougher rules, but it may also shape how the industry and lawmakers think about threats to the financial system more broadly.

Atlantic Coast Financial in Jacksonville, Fla., has been released from an enforcement action that required it to improve its capital ratios.

The sweeping reforms passed in 2010 didn't bring community banks to the brink of extinction. Rather, their numbers have dwindled because of the impact of economies of scale and dormant de novo banking activity.

A growing lack of transparency between some businesses and their banking service providers threatens our ability to effectively manage money laundering and terrorist financing risk.

The financial industry and the Federal Reserve are finally on the same page about the U.S. payment system's need for speed. But achieving consensus about what the new system should look like remains a tall order.

It took a decade and a government mandate for the U.K. banking industry to develop a set of rails to transfer funds from one bank account to another in seconds.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued an enforcement action against a debt collection agency that allegedly threatened borrowers with criminal prosecution and jail time if they failed to pay extra fees for writing bounced checks.

Bank of America is asking the Justices to overturn lower-court rulings that mortgage loans with a secondary lien on a debtor's asset can be "stripped down" to zero when the collateral is completely underwater. The decision could affect an even wider range of second liens.

Mel Watt, the former North Carolina lawmaker, has earned praise for his cautious approach to guiding the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But critics say he is making it even more difficult to craft a system without them.

Not only do the FDIC's limitations on brokered deposits curtail bank earnings, they deny banks the ability to use brokered deposits to meet community lending needs.

The CFPB's proposed reforms for payday and other high-cost loans are both welcome and long overdue. But there are two ways the agency can further improve future requirements.

Fedcoin could have a lot of benefits, such as helping unbanked buy goods and pay bills online. But about those "know-your-customer" risks....

Large mortgage servicers continued to shed delinquencies as overall loan performance improved in the fourth quarter, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said Friday.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, unveiled legislation Friday that would require the banking agencies to review Dodd-Frank Act rules as part of a mandated process to assess the relevance of financial rules.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including thoughts on Wall Street's dwindling number of high-powered women and the merits and drawbacks of the CFPB's consumer complaint database.