Law and regulation

Banks identified as systemically important to the global economy face tighter rules on how much business they can do with each other as part of a push to limit the chance a single failure would drag down multiple lenders.

The federal push to stamp out illegal online lending is having unintended negative consequences, an umbrella group for state banking regulators says.

The Senate Banking Committee is scheduled to vote on its bill to overhaul the mortgage finance market on April 29, but questions are now being raised about whether that date will slip, as supporters struggle to secure additional votes.

The Senate Banking Committee is due to vote April 29 on a bill to revamp the housing finance system, though that date may slip. The legislation, by panel leaders Tim Johnson and Mike Crapo, had an auspicious start, with an equal number of members from each party among the dozen who came out in support of it. That's enough to pass the panel, but not sufficient to bring it to the Senate floor. Here are the other Dems the lawmakers are hoping to woo:

Facebook is reportedly close to obtaining a license to operate as an electronic money institution in Ireland, a move that builds on the company's years of experience handling payments on its home turf.

As the U.S. and Europe impose sanctions against Russia, western banks are keeping closer tabs on their business dealings in the country. JPMorgan Chase's temporary hold on a Russian Embassy payment and the disruption of VISA services for SMP Bank could be just the tip of the iceberg.

Bankers are kidding themselves if they think bank-like supervision will ultimately catch up with nonbanks. Expect to compete on the current playing field, however uneven it may be.

Regulators are clearly interested in crafting further reforms to Community Reinvestment Act policy following relatively minor changes last year. Here's a guide to what they may target.

Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry sought to reassure community bankers this week that the agency does not expect them to comply with its "heightened expectations" proposal aimed at bolstering risk management and improving governance at the biggest banks.

Banks are continuing to try to game capital ratios and regulatory standards that are intended to make the financial industry safer and simpler, according to Anat Admati. The Stanford finance professor and co-author of "The Bankers' New Clothes" discusses the successes and failures of regulation and banks' risk-management in recent months.

WASHINGTON — A top House Financial Services Committee lawmaker said Thursday that he will subpoena Consumer Financial Protection Bureau officials if they again refuse to testify about allegations of employee discrimination and retaliation.

A bipartisan group of senators announced a deal Thursday to reauthorize and extend the country's terrorism risk insurance program, to be taken up by the Banking Committee in coming weeks.

Banks are likely to protest new Basel rules that would require them to hold more capital against their exposure to central counterparties, but the standard is necessary to prevent the fast-growing counterparties from becoming "too big to fail."

More than a year into his leadership atop the powerful banking panel, it's still unclear whether Rep. Jeb Hensarling is willing to trade his ideological beliefs for the messy reality that is dealmaking in today's Congress.

Ties between presidents and top bankers have loosened over time as armies of handlers have intervened. The result is a system in which the bankers' sense of civic duty has weakened, even as the concentration of assets in their hands has come to pose mounting systemic risk. That's according to Nomi Prins, author of All the Presidents' Bankers.

In a victory for banks, global financial regulators revised rules governing how much money must be set aside to cover losses by swaps traders, backing away from guidelines that firms warned would destabilize the $693 trillion derivatives market.

Regulators look at eight risk categories when determining a bank's health, but it's how banks deal with three in particular — interest rate risk, liquidity risk and IT/operational risk -- that could make or break them.

Bill Demchak, PNC's chief executive, gives a candid and detailed interview on a range of subjects, from the CFPBs crackdown on indirect auto lending (misguided, in his view) to the Fed's proposed Basel liquidity rule to housing finance reform.

WASHINGTON — Regulators slammed Bank of America on Wednesday with their toughest enforcement action to date on shady marketing and billing practices for add-on products like identity protection, forcing it to pay $772 million in restitution and fines.

The White House is considering two community bankers to fill an open seat on the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors, according to two people with knowledge of the process.