Law and regulation

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve Board issued revised standards on Thursday dictating how banks should oversee service providers, including consultants.

China's central bank barred financial institutions from handling Bitcoin transactions, moving to regulate the virtual currency after an 89-fold jump in its value sparked a surge of investor interest in the country.

American Banker's digital news coverage took top honors at the 2013 Eddie & Ozzie Awards Thursday.

There are now less than 6,900 banks in the United States, the smallest number of financial companies since the Great Depression — and bankers expect the industry to contract even more in coming years. American Banker editors discuss the stakes for community banks and why the country still needs thousands of small banks.

As consumer groups turn their attention to smaller institutions, they bring lending disparities to regulators’ attention. The regulators seem to take these issues more seriously than during bank megamergers’ heyday.

A decision by Popular (BPOP) in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to reduce its stake in a former technology subsidiary could help it exit the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

There seems to be undue emphasis being placed on a provision that, generally, would have done nothing to avoid the recent financial crisis. Ultimately, however, the Volcker Rule has to be judged like any other regulation: do its benefits outweigh its costs?

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew vowed Thursday that regulators will release a strict version of a long-awaited regulation that would ban proprietary trading and investment in hedge and equity funds by banks.

Several Canadian banks have taken on the challenge of managing and protecting their customers' usernames and passwords across banking and government sites. U.S. banks are invited to join a similar pilot starting in the U.S.

Regulators are furiously working to release a slew of rules due by yearend, including the controversial Volcker Rule, a ban on proprietary trading that has taken more than three years to finalize. Following are the top regulations likely to be released in the next few weeks.

Lawmakers debated draft legislation aimed at reducing duplicative or inconsistent bank regulations on Wednesday, though the bipartisan effort is already drawing some criticism from Democrats.

United Community Financial (UCFC) in Youngstown, Ohio, has been released from a memorandum of understanding with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and state regulators.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is urging big banks to voluntarily disclose their contributions to think tanks, arguing that donations could influence policymaking.

Across the 12 Federal Reserve districts, nearly half saw some signs of improvement.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a rule Tuesday that allows it to examine any nonbank servicer that handles more than one million student loan borrower accounts.

The National Fair Housing Alliance is accusing big banks of racial bias for neglecting homes they've foreclosed on in minority neighborhoods. Bankers deny the charges but are anxious to avoid a public fight with a nonprofit that's closely tied to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. American Banker staffers discuss.

Two Washington law firms that specialize in advising financial institutions have agreed to merge.

The founding CEO of Bank of Bird-in-Hand was told by regulators that his group's "thorough" vetting would be the norm going forward.

Ignoring the effects of loan seller origination, sourcing, and servicing processes in a post-GSE secondary market could generate losses for taxpayers.

With a goal of speeding up delivery of Near Field Communication-enabled handsets, China Mobile Limited has purchased EMV chip-card testing capabilities from Fime, as well as received a license to begin operating a new, fourth-generation wireless network.