Law and regulation

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders sued the U.S., alleging that the 2008 takeover of the housing lending giants was illegal and cost investors billions of dollars.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper's office announced an extended court order against one of the largest debt settlement firms in the U.S. that will keep the company from collecting money.

Consumers are still being gouged by high overdraft fees and abrupt account closures despite new restrictions on banks designed to protect depositors, according to a study released Tuesday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The Treasury Department has begun auctioning more than $51 million of stock that it acquired through the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The FHFA has yet to post to its website any public comments related to a proposed ban on commissions and reinsurance agreements in force-placed insurance. So we're posting some obtained from key voices in the industry and government.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is considering reforms to force-placed insurance aimed at giving the public a better deal. So why isn't it letting the public in on its planning?

The National Security Agency's PRISM surveillance program has sparked a major outcry over phone monitoring, but the less-publicized government accumulation of credit card and other payments data can provide far more granular intelligence, according to payments experts.

Pennsylvania Dutch country could get the first de novo bank to open in the U.S. in more than two years.

The banking unit of FNB United in Asheboro, N.C., has been freed from a regulatory order and has completed its integration of the Bank of Granite.

The constant pillorying of banks can hardly inspire public confidence in them. Regulators should focus, instead, on peer comparisons and the encouragement of effective policies and procedures.

In two closely watched cases, the Oregon Supreme Court has ruled that creditors using an electronic mortgage registry don't have to publicly record the ownership history of a trust deed to take advantage of the nonjudicial foreclosure process the state's legislature created in 1959.

After years of housing finance reform efforts languishing in Congress, a draft bill by Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. and Mark Warner, D-Va., appears poised to become the catalyst for finally moving ahead on a way to overhaul Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said the Federal Housing Finance Agency's objection to certain short sales designed to keep original borrowers in their homes is misguided.

Florida's attorney general has threatened to sue Bank of America for violating the national mortgage settlement.

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

Raj Date, the former deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, plans to work with banks to create cheaper short-term loans for cash-strapped customers, despite mounting regulatory scrutiny of the products.

Rising rates can expose lurking dangers across the industry.

Two operators of Liberty Reserve SA pleaded not guilty to U.S. charges that they helped run the largest money-laundering scheme in history.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. exercised its powers to appoint itself the receiver to circumvent a judge's ruling that barred Nevada regulators from closing a tiny bank belonging to Capitol Bancorp.