Law and regulation

Two senior House Democrats are raising concerns about a highly anticipated House Financial Services subcommittee hearing scheduled for Wednesday to examine grievances filed by employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The number of financial complaints filed by consumers increased nearly 80% last year, to 160,000, according to a report released Monday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

WASHINGTON — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Office of Financial Research on Monday reached a deal on a joint project to collect data from registered swap repositories.

Small banks' increased compliance costs could lead to fewer relationship managers, streamlined service models and increased costs of credit. As such, many small business and middle-market customers may simply choose to take their business elsewhere.

To make the process fairer to small banks, regulators should issue community bank summaries during the proposal stage, not when releasing final rules. They also should do more outreach to small banks and extend comment periods on major rules, writes the ABA's Hugh Carney.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued two consent orders and terminated 21 enforcement actions in February, according to its latest roundup of regulatory orders.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week.

Trading revenue at banks and thrifts fell in the fourth quarter because of weak demand as well as seasonal patterns, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said Friday.

David Williams, the U.S. Postal Service's inspector general, defends a proposal — that the Postal Service should get into banking — that has come under fire from many in the financial industry.

Recent comments by Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry, suggesting steps to make large-bank executives accountable for anti-money laundering problems, have reignited the debate over where to direct blame for Bank Secrecy Act violations.

WASHINGTON — Senate Banking Committee leaders said Friday they would hold a panel vote on April 29 to reform the housing finance system.

Top financial executives met Thursday to discuss how their industry can innovate, but most of the discussion focused on a more defensive topic: what banks and the government need to do to stave off mounting cybersecurity threats.

WASHINGTON — A House Financial Services subcommittee said Thursday it would feature a "whistleblower" at a hearing next week looking into grievances filed by employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Los Angeles banker Maria Contreras-Sweet has been confirmed as the new head of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Mortgages at the nation's largest financial institutions continued to improve for the fifth consecutive quarter at the end of last year, an indication that 2013 was a steadier year for mortgage portfolios than the quakes seen following the housing crisis.

Carol Galante has a challenge: Spur lenders to take more care when originating Federal Housing Administration loans, without scaring them away or causing them to hike pricing to cover the additional risk.

Federal Housing Administration Commissioner Carol Galante explains why she's encouraged lenders are lowering minimum credit scores, how manual underwriting can help overlooked borrowers and why the agency's volume is headed.

A bipartisan group of House members argues that licensed, fully lawful companies are being harmed by examiners’ increased scrutiny of online lending.

Ally Financial Inc., the auto lender rescued by the U.S. government during the 2008 financial crisis, is helping the Treasury Department divest its stake by seeking as much as $2.7 billion in an initial public offering.

The Federal Reserve Board's stress tests left a fair amount of blood on the floor for banks. Twenty-five of 30 passed, but the central bank rejected the capital plans of four banks based on qualitative factors, rather than straight-up numbers. Only one bank failed both rounds of stress tests based on its numerical score. Following are the banks that fared poorly: