Law and regulation

The debate over the Warren-McCain bill should start by correcting some popular misunderstandings.

WASHINGTON — The House Financial Services Committee narrowly approved legislation to overhaul the mortgage finance system Wednesday morning after more than 10 hours of back-and-forth debate on Tuesday.

Comerica, Huntington, M&T Bank, Northern Trust and Discover are among the next wave of holding companies set to join the 18 others now required to participate in annual exams that test banks' capital strength in times of stress.

Boston University professor Con Hurley's plan would require systemically important firms to set aside reserves equal to the net advantage — funding and otherwise — they get for being big.

Politicians who blindly supported restrictive AML guidelines now proclaim disgust as a global bank severs relationships with firms that send money to Somalia. But Barclays is merely exercising understandable caution.

With the House Financial Services Committee imminently voting on a bill to wind down and replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, you might think Washington is finally moving on GSE reform. Not so fast.

Even free-marketeers must recognize initial conditions. The markets we have today are set up to invest in government-guaranteed mortgage-backed securities. To remove the guarantee without crippling damage would take decades.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council, designed under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act to identify risks to the stability of the financial system, labeled Prudential Financial as a risky nonbank financial company last Thursday.

A Connecticut bankruptcy attorney and her outsourced legal support services provider filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau of overstepping its authority in asking for privileged and sensitive information.

A new report from the Tarp inspector general says the Treasury Department failed to analyze its own data to determine which borrowers were most at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure after receiving government support.

The House Financial Services Committee was expected to approve a Republican-backed bill to remove government support in a new housing finance system, but senators continue to back a more bipartisan approach that preserves a federal backstop.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed a federal complaint Tuesday against Castle & Cooke Mortgage for giving bonuses to loan officers who allegedly steered consumers into mortgages with higher interest rates.

Prudential Financial was given the opportunity to challenge its designation as a "systemically important financial institution" in a closed-door hearing with the Financial Stability Oversight Council.

Until banks' RWA disclosures improve and become more uniform globally, capital ratios will remain a mystery to many journalists, investors, banks and even some supervisors.

A Senate Banking Committee hearing Tuesday addressed growing concerns that Wall Street institutions have too much influence in controlling commodity prices.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Trendon Shavers with defrauding investors of nearly $150,000 worth of bitcoins through Bitcoin Savings and Trust, an online investment scheme he ran, and of making false claims while soliciting investments online in 2011 and 2012.

The outspoken CEO has nothing but praise for the Basel Committee and says bankers have little to fear from the CFPB.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued a Texas man over claims he operated a Ponzi scheme involving Bitcoin, the virtual currency that has recently attracted investors including Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.

The Corker-Warner bill and House GOP bill both understand that the fundamental GSE model is insidious and needs to be definitively terminated.

The Federal Reserve Board has terminated enforcement actions with Royal Bancshares of Pennsylvania in Narberth and First Pryority Bank in Pryor, Okla.