Law and regulation

As concerns mount that Somali-Americans will lose their pipeline for sending money home, Washington's response has been marked by what critics see as secrecy, buck-passing and a lack of interagency coordination.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has finalized a set of risk management supervisory standards for banks with over $50 billion in assets.

Redwood Trust and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago are revving up a program to buy and securitize jumbo loans and looking for signs that other FHLBs will participate.

Summer has come and gone in the nation's capital with regulators gearing up for an array of autumn policy moves affecting the financial services sector.

The historic basis for credit union tax exemptions has become outdated, according to Frank Keating of the American Bankers Association.

Following one of worst quarters in six years, federally-insured banks and thrifts experienced a rebound in retail mortgage originations in the second quarter.

The Justice Department's recent $16.6 billion deal with Bank of America over crisis-era mortgage fraud has raised fresh questions over a perceived lack of transparency in the settlement process.

Bank of America has taken a significant reputational hit as a result of its 2008 acquisition of Countrywide Financial. Could it have mitigated some of the damage with a different branding strategy?

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has turned to a technology expert for a little help.

Following a prolonged stretch of modest loan growth, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s Quarterly Banking Profile showed loan balances shooting to a level not seen since 2007.

An examination of the details in the B of A settlement shows many examples of risky behavior, including mortgage applications that were underwritten with "shadow" guidelines that allowed exceptions to approve almost any loan.

Efforts to limit so-called tax inversions are destined for failure until policymakers reform the corporate tax rate, writes Mark Olson of Treliant Risk Advisors.

The industry's profit in the second quarter rose more than 5% from a year earlier to $40.2 billion as institutions continued to reduce their loan-loss expenses and registered an uptick in loan growth, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Thursday.

Banks that misinterpret regulatory guidance on vendor risk management can wind up shortchanging themselves and stifling industry innovation, according to consultant Paul Schaus.

Ginnie Mae President Ted Tozer took issue with a government watchdog report that criticized both his agency and the government-sponsored enterprises for failing to catch the massive fraud at Taylor, Bean & Whitaker.

A bulletin from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau outlining new policies for mortgage servicing transfers has the industry on alert for another possible round of rulemaking coming down the pike.

WASHINGTON — Regulators next week plan to finalize a tough new liquidity measure as well as propose margin requirements for banks engaged in swaps activities.

Allowing the Federal Home Loan Bank System to invest in mortgage-backed securities is just one of many ideas being pitched to policymakers to revive the private-label market.

For the first time in history, the Federal Reserve will have to engineer changes in the federal funds rate by using taxpayer dollars to pay a higher interest rate on reserves or to implement a reverse repurchase agreement program, according to Paul H. Kupiec of the American Enterprise Institute.

The Federal Housing Administration is changing a pair of rules on interest rate payments and resets to align with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's qualified mortgage rule.