Law and regulation

Colorado's top banking regulator — the only state supervisor to get overruled by the Federal Reserve Board on a failure — is retiring.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Martin Gruenberg said the agency plans to release a report next year exploring how mobile phone use could help expand access to banks.

Metropolitan National Bank in New York is changing its name and ditching its national charter.

The Federal Reserve Board has ended a regulatory action against PathFinder Bancorp (PBHC) in Lake Oswego, N.Y.

The Federal Reserve Board says it followed a proper system for establishing debit interchange caps and fully abided by the Durbin Amendment's requirement for merchants to have two unaffiliated networks to choose from for routing debit transactions.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray said down payment standards are among the falsehoods rumored to be in the agency’s mortgage regulation that takes effect Jan. 10.

American Airlines and US Airways have argued that the combined airline will be good for "competition, consumers and choice." But just days before the merger's closing, changes that the airlines have made to a popular credit card reward may end up having the opposite effect.

A team of international regulators delivered a sweeping report on Thursday calling for significant changes to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's supervision process, including pulling examiners-in-residence out of the biggest banks and making changes to the bank rating system.

The Fed's vision of a vastly improved payments system within 10 years is getting a chilly reception from a group representing the nation's largest banks.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said Thursday that regulators will release a strict version of Dodd-Frank's Volcker Rule that would ban proprietary trading and investment in hedge and equity funds by banks.

The city of Newark, N.J., is moving forward with a foreclosure-prevention plan that could involve using the power of eminent domain to restructure underwater mortgages.

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.