Law and regulation

MetLife and Prudential Financial have been joined by state regulators challenging the Federal Reserve on how to oversee the biggest insurers under the Dodd-Frank law.

Big banks are facing unprecedented pressure from federal and state regulators to rein in their consumer credit card collections practices following revelations of improper behavior.

Companies that create goods or enhance existing services are seen as innovative and responsive. Businesses that impose fees without adding value often wind up paying a reputational price.

The Office of the Comptroller of Currency has begun issuing its examiners "best practice" guidelines to end big banks' use of faulty records in the sale of defaulted consumer debt. The move could threaten billions of dollars of sales to collections agencies.

Sen. Mike Crapo, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, is asking the Government Accountability Office to look into the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's data collection efforts.

The former president of the failed Mutual Bank in Harvey, Ill., has been banned from the banking industry by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday met to vote on a final Basel III package, which represents the most significant overhaul of regulatory capital requirements for U.S. institutions.

Regulators are challenging banks’ relationships with disfavored businesses, citing the endlessly adaptable concept of reputation risk rather than law or regulation.

Two officers of an Arizona mortgage lender are going to prison for defrauding a Troubled Asset Relief Program recipient.

Members of the EMV Migration Forum are recommending a single common debit code for EMV transactions in the U.S. and plan to provide details later this summer for how the payments industry can implement it.

During the heyday of deregulation, Gerald Corrigan argued that banks' unique functions required a unique level of supervision and protection. The former Fed official's essay remains as relevant as ever.

JPMorgan Chase has stopped selling most of its bad loans to third-party collectors in recent months as it braces for regulatory action over its credit card debt collections practices.

As the Federal Reserve Board gets set to vote on a final package of Basel III capital rules at a meeting Tuesday, it remains unclear just how far regulators will go to placate community bankers outraged by the proposal offered last year.

Mutual thrift defections from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency should decline now that once-nervous bankers have gotten a chance to get familiar with the regulator.

California’s financial regulator has baffled observers by sending a cease-and-desist “warning letter” to the Bitcoin Foundation. Did the Golden State’s bureaucrats blindly send out letters to any organization it could find with the word “bitcoin” in its name?

An explicit guarantee is better than the implicit one Fannie and Freddie had. But a more fundamental approach is to demand that financial actors internalize and capitalize the risks themselves.

Goldman Sachs, one of the owners of a newly designated “minority bank,” has a history of discriminatory behavior.

Big banks, including Citi and U.S. Bank, are developing a system to make mobile wallets more secure by walling off customer data from merchants and other third parties.

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

A veteran banking regulator has been promoted to become the commissioner of Georgia’s Department of Banking and Finance.