Law and regulation

After clashing with regulators and being blacklisted by many banks and credit unions, many emerging-payments companies are seeking a warmer welcome outside the U.S.

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit seeking class-action status against collection agency General Collection and law firm Truell Murray & Associates, both based in Grand Island, Neb.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has taken a cautious approach to its oversight of payday lenders so far, but is likely to issue new regulations covering the industry next year, according to several observers.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a letter to student loan servicers asking them to voluntarily share their payment processing policies.

The Volcker Rule, enacted in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, has proved to be one of the financial reform law's most challenging provisions to implement. After more than three years, regulators are closing in on a final rule that is expected to be tougher than its first draft.

The Senate Banking Committee is making progress toward drafting legislation to overhaul the mortgage finance market, but one of the biggest unresolved issues is how much skin in the game private market participants must have in return for a government guarantee.

In a letter to servicers, a top CFPB official requests that student loan servicers show the options they've made available to borrowers who want to make extra payments on their loans.

The community development group Boston Community Capital is urging lawmakers to extend the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act before it expires at the end of the December.

The short-term consumer loan product will either have to be overhauled or ditched in the wake of new regulatory guidance.

Increases in medium- and long-term interest rates still pose risks, but the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s Quarterly Banking Profile revealed that a rate recovery can also have advantages.

Mercantile Bank (MBWM) in Grand Rapids, Mich., expects regulatory hang-ups to delay its acquisition of Firstbank (FBMI) in Alma, Mich.

The cap on the size of mortgages that government-sponsored enterprises can guarantee will remain unchanged at the start of 2014.

Big-bank executives should finalize living wills, hold each other publicly accountable and re-teach ethics training within their rank-and-file if they hope to escape an escalated regulatory crackdown.

WASHINGTON — Higher interest rates and elevated litigation expenses at one large bank last quarter led to the industry's first year-over-year earnings decline in more than four years.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s inspector general said in a report Friday that there must be stronger coordination between agency divisions to carry out Dodd-Frank responsibilities dealing with the resolution of failed behemoths.

Modern giants are likely to behave at least as badly as their World War II counterparts.

First Merchants (FRME) in Muncie, Ind., has exited the Small Business Lending Fund.

If consumers were worried about a government shutdown or stalled debt ceiling talks affecting the economy, they didn’t show it by holding off on credit card spending in October, a First Data Corp. report indicates.

Wall Street banks reeling from a flurry of activity by departing U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler are considering taking the agency to court.

Lenders’ choices today are stark: Make Qualified Mortgage loans and risk being sued under the disparate-impact doctrine; make non-QM loans and risk being sued under the ability-to-pay-doctrine; or sell their loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.