Law and regulation

Doreen Eberley, the director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s Division of Risk Management Supervision, says examiners are more sensitive today to risks that are not obvious on a bank's balance sheet and that banks need to scrutinize an ever-changing landscape of new products.

While some Bitcoin businesses hesitate to respond to the evolving regulatory framework surrounding digital currency, Robert Pargac, director of global investigations and compliance at Navigant Consulting, says Bitcoin businesses should stay proactive and aggressive in their approach to risk and compliance.

Community banks are looking at ways to keep making mortgages despite added regulation, rising rates and a shrinking refinance market.

Large bank holding companies that underwent stress-testing by the Federal Reserve Board have improved their capital planning but must correct several shortcomings soon, the agency warned in a paper released Monday.

Since bursting onto the financial regulatory scene two years ago, Benjamin Lawsky has fined banks hundreds of millions of dollars over money-laundering allegations, temporarily banned big consultants from operating in his state, shaken up the force-placed insurance market and clamped down on payday lenders. In the process, New York State's Superintendent of Financial Services has sometimes stepped on the toes of fellow regulators. Following are quotes from a wide-ranging interview that National Editor Maria Aspan conducted recently with the 43-year-old former prosecutor and longtime aide to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

The German Finance Minister has ruled that Bitcoin is a “currency unit” and a form of “private money," and that the digital currency's users should pay sales tax as well as capital gains tax, Ars Technica reported on Aug. 18.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are ignoring billions of dollars in potential losses on delinquent loans as they take three years to adopt a new accounting system, a government auditor said in a letter made public today.

A panel of judges in California has ruled that a lawsuit against a collection agency brought by the Kern County (California) district attorney can proceed after the agency previously won a dismissal in a lower court.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency took six enforcement actions and ended several others last month, the agency said Friday.

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

Bitcoin users who help maintain the digital ecosystem's official record of transactions may soon find themselves required to register with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as administrators of the alternative currency.

A federal judge raised the possibility that banks will have to repay billions of dollars to merchants, but legal experts say the court lacks the authority to enact such an order.

Merrill Lynch & Co., the 99-year-old firm known for its "thundering herd" of brokers pitching stocks to Main Street, may cease to exist as a legal entity more than four years after being acquired by Bank of America Corp.

The Federal Reserve Board announced plans to collect $440 million in fees from 70 companies for increased supervision by the agency.

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp is keeping busy on her August recess, talking housing finance reform and meeting with community bankers in her home state of North Dakota.

The Federal Reserve Board said Friday it plans to collect $440 million in fees from 70 companies for increased supervision by the agency.

Tim Pawlenty, the head of the Financial Services Roundtable, has named Eric Hoplin as the trade group's next executive director.

Nowhere has the piecemeal approach to postcrisis regulation been more apparent than with the CFPB's Qualified Mortgage rules and its aggressive stance on the fair-lending doctrine of disparate impact.

The Government Accountability Office is poised this fall to unveil the first of two reports on whether big banks benefit from an implicit subsidy due to the perception that they are "too big to fail," adding more fuel to an already contentious debate.

During a hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon suggested that the Federal Reserve Board set a cap on swipe fees too high under the Durbin Amendment, a provision in the Dodd-Frank Act, and stated banks might be forced to rebate potentially billions of dollars to merchants in "overcharges."