Law and regulation

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."

New York banking regulator Benjamin Lawsky has spent the summer expanding his office's already weighty influence. Now he's taking a break from his rapid-fire filing of new actions.

The European Commission says the phone company and banks involved in a mobile commerce joint venture in Spain can move forward because they are not violating anti-competition rules.

Regulators have lifted an enforcement action against Eastern National Bank in Miami, according to a report.

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.

In preparation of the mortgage rules due to take effect next year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released updated exam procedures on Thursday.

New York Department of Financial Services Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky discusses what he regards as right and wrong with financial services, the perils of taking on too many regulatory challenges and why so few top executives have faced the long arm of the law.

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued updated exam procedures on Thursday for a slew of mortgage rules due to take effect next year.

The Federal Reserve Board has terminated enforcement actions with Marquette Financial in Minneapolis and Bank of Virginia in Midlothian.