Law and regulation

WASHINGTON -- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized clarifications Tuesday to its mortgage servicing rules in an effort to ease concerns servicers had about communicating with struggling or bankrupt borrowers who invoke certain legal protections.

Consumers will have more confidence in the formal system of money transfers once they are given clear information about how much money will actually be available on the receiving end.

The National Consumer Law Center has published a blistering report on debt collections.

Monitoring fraud and deception is an immense undertaking for third-party payment processors and banks. Trying to make them into first responders to various social pathologies is a step too far.

Continued regulatory gaps in overdraft service put consumers at financial risk and potentially expose them to high, unexpected costs for little benefit.

ACA International, the largest trade group for the consumer debt collection industry, issued a statement applauding the decision by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to no longer include enforcement lawyers at routine examinations of financial institutions.

China, Switzerland, Germany and Japan are among nations close to reaching arrangements with U.S. regulators to ease the dismantling of failed banks, said Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg.

The Federal Reserve may be preparing to fine Community Trust Bancorp (CTBI) in Pikeville, Ky., for deceptive overdraft practices.

The Federal Housing Administration has joined Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in calling for mortgage lenders to temporarily postpone mortgage payments for furloughed government employees and contractors who have been affected by the shutdown.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week.

Removing enforcement personnel from exams is just the start to a broad overhaul designed to make the process faster and free up personnel to pursue their own investigations outside of exams, according to Steven Antonakes, the CFPB's No. 2.

Regulators have proposed new rules that would require banks to accept private flood insurance on homes in high-risk areas.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau penalized two nonbank mortgage lenders, Mortgage Master and Washington Federal, for failure to properly comply with the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975.

Even though the U.S. payments industry's regulatory environment can be difficult for startups, there is plenty of investment being made in the market for new disruptive technologies.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has updated its accounting guidelines to reflect the new regulatory-capital requirements outlined in Basel III set to take effect next year.

The Treasury Department expects to receive roughly $66 million from a recent auction of stakes it owns in seven banks from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

A law intended to make the National Flood Insurance Program sustainable could force many owners out of their homes and hurt the housing recovery.

A lesson for Congress in liquidity risk and market contagion.

SunTrust Banks (STI) has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to resolve claims of shoddy mortgage lending, servicing and foreclosure practices.