Law and regulation

Former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alan Blinder took shots at credit rating agencies and Wall Street traders this week in a public lecture at the Museum of American Finance.

The Community Home Lenders Association is pointing to President Obama's recently released budget as proof that the Federal Housing Administration has leeway to lower premiums.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling and two other GOP lawmakers are probing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over how it treats its employees.

Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke reportedly made more in his first post-Fed speech than he did in his entire last year running the central bank.

Banks have stepped up efforts to extend the government's terrorism risk insurance program, fearing that Congress may fail to act before it is scheduled to expire at yearend.

Scott Tomlinson at Flint Community Bank used a meeting with the agency's deputy director to speak his mind on the shortcomings of mortgage regulation.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is suing four former officers and directors of a failed Baltimore bank for more than $7.4 million in damages.

The information that some of the nation's largest data brokers are selling to consumer lenders is riddled with inaccuracies, the National Consumer Law Center finds.

Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., has launched a hilarious stunt to urge federal regulators to ban U.S. dollars, following a more serious plea by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to prohibit Bitcoin.

The subsidiaries of the $4.4 billion-asset company will be merged into Simmons First National Bank by August 2014, according to a Wednesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

It is not right that a creditor be held liable for unintentional discrimination on the basis of less evidence than is required to prove intentional discrimination. Leveraging a settlement on threat of litigation without such evidence is an abuse of power.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau managers are far more likely to rate white employees highly than minorities, data obtained by American Banker shows. The figures reflect broad personnel problems inside the agency and are likely to give rise to claims that it's failing to uphold standards it punishes others for violating.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's employee ratings show the same sorts of racial patterns that it has castigated bankers for permitting in the loan market. American Banker staffers discuss what may be behind the numbers and what they may mean for bankers and policymakers.

The largest global banks halved the shortfall in the capital they will need to meet Basel rules in the first six months of 2013, leaving a gap of 57.5 billion euros ($79 billion).

Predictions vary widely on how hard it will be for foreign banks to comply with a new capital rule from the Federal Reserve. Many will have to sell branches or loans, or they may just need to shuffle some legal paperwork, depending on whom you speak with.

The increased scrutiny, mortgage bankers complain, would end recent attempts to provide home loans to borrowers with weaker credit, something the FHA has been trying to spur for years.

Consumers were less eager to seek new mortgage loans for home purchases in the first quarter, in part due to cold weather across swaths of the country, according to a Federal Reserve report released Wednesday.

After halting an Ocwen deal to purchase mortgage servicing rights from Wells Fargo, New York's Department of Financial Services is turning its attention to another nonbank servicer, Nationstar.

If banks that performed well for their shareholders from 2002 to 2012 have so many older directors, why would some banks force directors to retire once they hit 70 or 72 years of age?

A House subcommittee is set to discuss whether U.S. financial reform impedes our ability to compete with firms overseas. But if they were truly worried about global competitiveness, there are other, more pressing issues lawmakers should be analyzing.