Law and regulation

The Federal Reserve has taken action against one bank (Northwestern Bancorp in Traverse City, Mich.) and lifted an order on another (Saehan Bancorp in Los Angeles).

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is shedding senior officials faster than it can replace them, raising concerns that the agency will no longer be able to maintain the aggressive pace set during its nearly two years of existence.

Bankers, nonprofit executives and others recently gathered to discuss how best to provide financial services to low-income and other underserved customers. Here is some of their advice about how to charge for prepaid cards and other products, how to create new ones and how to cope with increased regulatory scrutiny.

Regulators can use the power of Big Data mining and pattern-matching algorithms to seek out triggers of contagion across an interconnected financial system.

Some banks have transformed their loan portfolios with a focus on business borrowers, and made strides in profitability at the same time.

European Union antitrust regulators invited comments on Visa Europe Ltd.’s offer to cut “significantly” the fees it sets for processing cross-border credit-card payments in a bid to end an EU antitrust probe.

Citizens Bank of Kansas in Kingman has traded in its national charter for a state charter.

The House passed several derivatives bills that would roll back or modify provisions of the Dodd-Frank reform law, despite opposition by the White House and Democrats.

Regulators are focusing attention on ensuring community banks have proper security systems in place in the wake of a string of cyberattacks on megabanks.

In response to questions from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, SEC Chairman Mary Jo White said the current policy of seeking settlements is in the best interests of consumers and companies.

The nation's seven largest banks have earned an extension to push out their swap activities as required by the Dodd-Frank reform law by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

A bipartisan bill to reform the mortgage finance system being crafted in the Senate has already drawn praise from a variety of stakeholders, but the effort is almost certain to meet strong resistance from House Republicans.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have launched "Money Smart for Older Adults" with tips on preventing identity theft and other common scams and how to prepare financially for life events.

Law professor Saule T. Omarova is suggesting regulators require pre-market approval for complex financial instruments like derivatives to curb systemic risk in global markets. How effective would such a program be?

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Martin Gruenberg signs memorandum of understanding with Canadian counterpart expressing the two agencies' "willingness to cooperate with each other" in resolutions of cross-border institutions.

Banks and insurers are expected to make the case at closed-door hearings being held later this week by the Federal Housing Finance Agency that forced-placed homeowner's policies should remain the purview of state regulators. The discussions are part of a broader debate over how to reform the force-placed insurance market. The controversy revolves around claims by consumer advocates, state regulators and others that banks and insurers have colluded to drive up the cost of such coverage, which is "force-placed" on often struggling homeowners who allow their standard hazard policies to lapse.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said Wednesday it would give the seven largest national banks more time to push out their swap activities as required by the Dodd-Frank Act.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released a report in which it found widespread misuse of overdraft fees among banks. Agency acting director Richard Cordray warned of potential harm to consumers and indicated that action is likely. American Banker editors discuss what the CFPB found how it's likely to respond in a market worth $32 billion in revenues to the banking industry.

The Fed’s research raises more questions than it answers, among them: Is the researcher right when he says the great bankers he interviewed could run a bank successfully anywhere, anytime?

Companies that purchase delinquent accounts secured an estimated $230 million in default judgments against New Yorkers in 2011, according to a report from the New Economy Project, but failed to prove they owned the debt in a majority of cases.