Law and regulation

The Federal Reserve on Friday released transcripts from more than a dozen Federal Open Market Committee meetings and conference calls held during 2008, at the height of the financial crisis. The hundreds of pages of recorded history show how policymakers struggled with their decision to allow the investment bank Lehman Brothers to collapse and offer intimations of the turmoil yet to come from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Critics have complained recently that bank regulators and the Justice Department have been overstepping their legal authority and acting like moral police. American Banker staffers discuss what's behind the charges and whether they stand up to scrutiny.

Bankers, industry representatives and other experts largely praise the FDIC's plan to unwind troubled behemoths, but suggest a host of issues that the agency needs to address before it can ensure the end of "too big to fail."

Two Florida men have been sentenced to serve seven years in federal prison for swindling more than $4 million from borrowers who were behind on their mortgages.

U.S. banks are seeking to shield from scrutiny the $30 billion they collect annually in checking-account fees, saying a proposed requirement for periodic reports is unacceptable even if it exempts small institutions.

JPMorgan Chase recovered only $593 million in charged-off credit card debts in 2013 - a slump of 57% from three years earlier. The drop reflects the improving economy and the regulatory pressures facing JPMorgan and other big banks over their collection practices.

Jennifer Shasky Calvery offered a character from the hit TV series as an example of a "third-party money launderer."

The judge who presided over the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the largest in U.S. history, will join law firm Morrison Foerster LLP next month to help lead its restructuring and insolvency group.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's crackdown on mortgage servicers' operations will increase the pressure on lenders to improve their processes, paperwork and communications with borrowers. American Banker journalists discuss how both banks and nonbank servicers can get ahead of the new regulatory scrutiny.

I myself am a HMDA wonk, but one with a rather love-hate relationship to the numbers. I love what they reveal, but hate the headaches that come from wrestling with data.

How the central bank will apply bank-centered rules to systemically important financial institutions is one of the biggest unanswered questions of the post-financial crisis regulatory system.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), the biggest U.S. bank, revised its gauge of market gains and losses to incorporate new regulatory requirements, resulting in a jump in the frequency of losses last year.

Everett Stern, who last year filed a lawsuit urging further U.S. investigation of his ex-employer HSBC, has decided to run for Congress on a platform of getting tougher on banks and cleaning up Washington.

The rule prohibits big foreign banks from allocating capital and liquidity in a manner they deem to be most efficient. This may be an acceptable price to pay if the overall result were enhanced stability, but trapping capital and liquidity in particular jurisdictions is likely to make large banks less resilient in times of crisis.

It's unclear who is behind the online campaign "Stop the Choke," but its message is clear: oppose the Justice Department investigation of the banking system's ties to firms that could be involved in fraud.

VantageSouth Bancshares (VSB) in Raleigh, N.C., has redeemed all outstanding shares issued to the Treasury Department under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

A financial reform group hoping to block the government's $13 billion settlement with JPMorgan Chase faces a steep uphill climb.

Bankers are mulling new ways to serve consumers with low incomes and poor credit profiles after the crackdown on deposit advances, but the prospect of smaller profits and continuing uncertainty about regulations may dissuade a serious effort.

The volume of complaints lodged by distressed borrowers to four of the largest U.S. banks has stabilized, the monitor for the national mortgage settlement says.

The biggest banks are coming off a year when their stocks and profits soared. Yet below the surface, they face a number of vexing problems: more regulation, less lucrative trading, an inability to do big deals and lower multiples than many smaller rivals. American Banker staffers discuss whether such factors may some day encourage shareholders to agitate for breakups.