Law and regulation

WASHINGTON — Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., reintroduced legislation Monday that would require the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to be nominated by the White House and confirmed by the Senate.

Sheila Bair, the former chairman of the FDIC, has the answer for significantly reducing the regulatory burden on small banks: give regulators the power to exempt institutions with less than $10 billion of assets from any new or existing regulation.

There's nothing wrong with big banks gaining market share because they offer the products and services that customers want. But there's a problem when big banks can beat off their smaller rivals with a club fashioned by legislators and regulators.

Taiwan Cooperative Bank has been cleared by the Federal Reserve Board to open a branch in New York.

The fight over the Dodd-Frank threshold for enhanced regulations is the first big legislative battle for a loose coalition of regional banks.

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators on Friday announced the second stage of a mandated review of banking rules meant to identify opportunities for relief.

WASHINGTON — Frank Keating, the chief executive of the American Bankers Association, is stepping down at the end of the year and a search for his successor has already begun.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including the Fed's proper role in speeding up the payment system; the perennial TBTF debate; and the privacy implications of anti-laundering regulations.

The Subsidy Reserve Act of 2015 could solve "too big to fail" and level the playing field for smaller banks by requiring the largest financial institutions to accumulate capital equal to the amount of the market subsidy they receive.

Fannie Mae reported net income of $14.2 billion last year, a sharp decline from the record $84 billion in 2013 that was inflated by accounting for tax credits.

CFPB officials are keeping a close watch on the Qualified Mortgage and ability-to-repay rules to gauge whether further changes should be made. But mortgage numbers don't give a clear picture on what kind of impact they've had.

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will continue its work to ensure credit reports are fair and freely given to consumers, agency director Richard Cordray said Thursday.

Online banking, ATMs and other advances have curtailed face-to-face transactions, but new Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. research says the brick-and-mortar office isn't going anywhere just yet.

The FDIC is taking important steps to undo the damage caused by Operation Choke Point — but fraud prevention company Early Warning apparently didn’t get the memo.

American Express rules barring businesses from asking customers to use lower-cost credit cards violate U.S. antitrust law, a federal judge found.

Freddie Mac will return $900 million to the Treasury Department next month, bringing total payments to nearly $21 billion above what it received in federal aid after the 2008 credit crisis.

Two weeks after U.S. bank remittances to Somalia dried up, regulators and lawmakers are making only slow progress at preventing a potential humanitarian crisis.

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators extended the deadline for three nonbank firms considered "systemically important" to submit their revised resolution plans, also known as living wills.

Regulators have long worried about the risks from the underwriting of leveraged loans, but they are now concerned about the potential for broader economic risk from losses on such loans.

Right now, financial institutions are not required to know the identity of the living, breathing person behind accounts owned by legal entities. The beneficial ownership rules proposed by Fincen would help expose money launderers, tax evaders and criminals.