Law and regulation

The payments industry is quickly adapting to new technology, new regulations and new consumer demands. Here are 15 of the industry's major transformations already in progress.

The coming year presents a golden opportunity for the payments industry to push for a repeal of the Durbin Amendment.

Fearless forecasts from BankThink's stable of industry veterans, experts and critics.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is in an uncomfortable spot in 2015, caught between a Republican majority already critical of its recent actions and an Obama administration bent on increasing access to credit in part by using the agency's powers.

Regulators' power to order restitutions is meant to be limited, but some courts are taking a broad interpretation of a key statute.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into whether hackers working on behalf of any U.S. financial institutions disabled servers that were being used by Iran to attack the websites of major banks last year.

The council will confront several challenges in the new year, including a potential formal contest from life insurer MetLife over its recent designation as a systemically important financial institution and ongoing efforts to investigate the asset management industry.

Community banks go against their own interests when they oppose regulations that mainly affect big banks and leave smaller institutions unscathed.

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is urging the Department of Defense to finalize a proposal meant to stop lenders from offering expensive credit to military personnel.

The head of the Financial Action Task Force, an international group that sets money-laundering standards, warns that many foreign institutions are now feeling the effects of the push inside American banks to cut off large swaths of customers.

The banking industry and federal regulators are struggling to find a middle ground between financial inclusion and preventing bad guys from gaining access to the mainstream financial system — but it doesn't appear a solution is coming anytime soon.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued four consent orders in November, according to its latest monthly roundup of enforcement actions published Monday.

Centralizing reporting and response functions can help banks better spot compliance shortcomings. It's also a good way to foster trust with regulators.

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Visa and MasterCard halted services in Crimea after a new round of U.S. sanctions, according to multiple reports.

2014 was a big year for payments. Disruption came from within the financial services industry and from outsiders like Apple and Walmart. Mainstream payment companies had to respond to these new competitors as well as adapt to fresh attention from regulators and fraudsters.

With Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reserves erasing crisis-era losses, the agency is staring down a critical decision on how to implement a congressionally required increase in the insurance fund.

It is unclear if the wave of state actions signals a burgeoning state scrutiny of consumer finance companies or if state enforcers will only employ this new approach on occasion.

Federal regulators formally issued a final risk retention rule for mortgage securitizations, a long-awaited and hotly debated measure that is nevertheless expected to have little market impact when it takes effect a year from now.

It isn't just payday lenders and money-services firms that are being ditched by banks lately. Community banks are getting cut off too.