Law and regulation

The House Financial Services Committee renewed its look at regulatory relief for small financial institutions Wednesday, pressing bankers and credit union representatives for details about their compliance burdens.

Payment solutions provider Global Payout has designed an electronic, closed-loop payment system to address the challenges faced by the medical and recreational marijuana industries.

Hoping to deliver relief to Americans pounded by the financial crisis, the government has poured billions of dollars into NeighborWorks America, a sort of Red Cross for homeowners. But a close look at the group reveals a house in disorder — with sweetheart contracts, document fudging and unexplained departures of top officials.

When financial firms emphasize the need to put customers first, they offer employees a simple way to navigate daily dilemmas while short-circuiting self-interest and tribal behavior.

There is no guarantee that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will remain profitable in the years ahead, raising the possibility of further draws from Treasury, according to a report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency's inspector general.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced Tuesday that it's seeking public comment ahead of a second study on the credit card market that could pave the way for new regulations or enforcement actions.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced Tuesday that it's seeking public comment ahead of a second study on the credit card market that could pave the way for new regulations or enforcement actions.

The controversial $50 billion-asset cutoff was one of a host of policy issues the Treasury secretary addressed before lawmakers on Tuesday.

A new book by the American Enterprise Institute's Peter Wallison reveals how a government push to lower credit standards brought about the housing crisis — and why a new effort to expand homeownership could inadvertently set the stage for a fresh disaster.

Meta Financial Group in Sioux Falls, N.D., expects to have a strong fiscal second quarter despite a small charge tied to brokered deposits.

The smaller banks in the FDIC's deposit insurance fund are subsidizing the activities of the largest banks. A two-tiered approach would go a long way toward addressing moral hazard and the too big to fail problem.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve Board issued a proposal Monday that would require certain financial institutions that have been assigned Legal Entity Identifiers to include that information in their regular reports, a first but tentative step toward broader reliance on the universal counterparty ID.

Lending groups are demanding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau take down its mortgage rate calculator, arguing it is providing misleading information to consumers.

Nomura Holdings Inc. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc helped fuel a bubble that led to the collapse of the U.S. housing market, an attorney for the Federal Housing Finance Agency said at the opening of a trial over defective mortgage-backed securities.

Westamerica Bancorp. probably expected little trouble when it asked for regulatory permission to close a small branch in northern California. Wrong! Welcome to the world of online petitions and social media.

Frank Hamlin, CEO of Canandaigua National, suggested in a recent letter to shareholders that N.Y. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's cases against Financial Institutions Inc. and Evans Bancorp were politically motivated.

A top Justice Department prosecutor said the U.S. is prepared to punish banks for violating criminal settlements, an unprecedented move designed to crack down on repeat offenders.

A recent Supreme Court decision means that one exemption to the Fair Labor Standards Act does not apply to mortgage salespeople, but their employers might still be able to take advantage of other exemptions.

Bipartisan legislation introduced in the Senate this week would make it easier for consumers to secure financing to purchase manufactured housing.

Ed DeMarco, the former chief regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, warned that efforts under the Obama administration to expand access to credit could risk repeating mistakes that led up to the crisis.