Law and regulation

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.

Fellow lawmakers lauded Sen. Heidi Heitkamp for a passion as strong as "battery acid" and her fluid softball swing. The Senate Banking member knows that's high praise on Capitol Hill.

Regulators are paying increasing attention to cyberthreats facing financial institutions, but many bankers are only just beginning to notice.

Despite a drop in truth in lending lawsuits, industry executives fear that new regulations and the emergence of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could prompt a revival in disclosure-related lawsuits.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in May issued enforcement orders against eight banks and freed 14 others from prior orders as part of a series of actions released Friday.

A former bishop of a Mormon church in Connecticut was sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison for running a fraud scheme that roped in a participant in the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Three federal agencies are competing for the gold medal in a "regulatory Olympics" over deposit advances. Their proposals would severely constrain banks from offering valuable products and assisting customers.

Rep. John Campbell, the chairman of the House Financial Services subcommittee on monetary policy, has decided not to seek re-election.

California's financial regulator has baffled observers by sending a cease-and-desist "warning letter" to the Bitcoin Foundation. The letter accuses the nonprofit of acting as an unlicensed money transmitter, even though its main activities are promoting awareness of digital currencies and developing the Bitcoin protocol client software. Did the Golden State's bureaucrats blindly send out letters to any organization it could find with the word "bitcoin" in its name? This much is clear: Rapidly evolving payment technologies are confounding traditional ways of understanding money.

Leverage measures, which can zigzag with sudden inflows or outflows of deposits, should be viewed as a backstop to risk-based capital measures, not as a primary capital constraint.

It's been an eventful year so far in the payments industry. Exciting new technologies, dramatic executive turnover and ongoing courtroom drama have defined 2013's first six months.

Rep. Mel Watt defended his judgment and experience with housing issues during a hearing on his nomination to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency, but it's unclear if the performance was enough to sway Republican opponents.

The CFPB is targeting more banks in a probe of an auto-loan program for military service members. Its $6.5 million settlement with U.S. Bancorp and a third-party service provider highlights the risks in vendor relationships.