Law and regulation

A nonbank mortgage servicer that took on more loans than it could handle ended up delaying payments to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to a government watchdog report.

BNP Paribas' record $8.9 billion penalty and criminal guilty plea could have reverberations industrywide, including emboldening the Justice Department to seek similar actions against domestic banks and causing international regulators to take retaliatory action.

The Justice Department announced a criminal plea and settlement with BNP Paribas on Monday, in which the French bank will pay nearly $8.9 billion to settle charges it willfully continued to do business with countries and entities on the U.S. sanctions list. It was the largest sanctions fine in the Justice Department's history — more than four times larger than #2 on the list. The following are the largest penalties paid by banks for sanctions violations.

BNP Paribas was charged in a criminal probe of U.S. sanctions violations, signaling the bank has resolved an investigation spanning seven years and will pay almost $9 billion, the largest fine ever for such a case.

The Internal Revenue Service is about to get an unprecedented look at bank accounts and investments U.S. citizens hold abroad, through a law that is making it harder to hide assets from the tax collector.

U.S. Bancorp, the nation's largest regional lender, agreed to pay $200 million to resolve federal claims that it misrepresented the quality of government-backed mortgages the company originated.

William Dudley, head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, has been elected chairman of the Economic Club of New York.

WASHINGTON — Regulators on Friday closed Freedom State Bank, in Freedom, Okla., the 12th institution to fail this year.

Banks would get protection from the Justice Department's investigation of mass-market consumer fraud under legislation sponsored by Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo.

Community-sized institutions with cybersecurity gaps are facing new attention from regulators under a pilot exam project.

Bitcoin and other digital currencies will get more attention from the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after prodding from a congressional watchdog.

A diverse group including troubled borrowers, low-income renters, mortgage-bond issuers and investors in those bonds will get a boost from new Treasury efforts to keep capital flowing in the mortgage market.

Bitcoin and other digital currencies will get more attention from the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after prodding from a congressional watchdog.

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a statement Thursday saying a Supreme Court decision issued earlier that day involving presidential recess appointments did not have any impact on the agency's previous rulemakings.

The latest Pew report shows consumers are still in the dark on overdraft fees, and it says that they pay too much when they have insufficient funds. The advocacy group is again calling for more regulatory reforms.

WASHINGTON — The number of home retention actions taken by the largest banks in the first quarter was more than three times the amount of completed foreclosures, short sales and deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure, according to a regulatory report released Thursday.

Friends of Traditional Banking, has released its preliminary list of 2014 races to watch.

A bill to clarify the Federal Reserve's authority around new capital rules is winding its way through Congress, paving the way for what could be a broader push for changes to the Dodd-Frank Act next year.

The Clearing House said Thursday that it has promoted Jeremy Newell to serve as general counsel of the trade group, which represents some of the largest financial institutions.

Ten years after the adoption of Basel II, the distortion in bank credit allocation produced by risk-weighted capital requirements has not even begun to be discussed.