Law and regulation

The House passed a controversial bill on Friday requiring the Securities and Exchange Commission to conduct additional economic analysis on its rules.

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

Washington Post blog tries giving clarity around who used the analogy in a point about Japanese monetary policy. It was likely not Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Rep. Mel Watt drew a lot of attention Wednesday when he questioned Attorney General Eric Holder at a House Judiciary Committee hearing with his grandson Nico in his lap.

The regulator of federal credit unions is promising to take steps to curtail high-cost, short-term loans, in the wake of tough action by banking regulators.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency took regulatory action against 11 financial institutions and terminated orders against five others in April, the agency said Friday.

In a sign of renewed pressure on mortgage servicers, a number of big banks have ceased or dramatically slowed the final step in the foreclosure process.

Risks posed by the shadow banking system, the need for regulators to work through disagreements and housing reform were among the key concerns among top financial policymakers gathered at the Federal Reserve's annual conference in Chicago last week.

The return to profitability of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is not a reason to preserve them as part of a future housing finance system.

The Federal Reserve announced an enforcement action against the Bank of Montreal and BMO Financial for "deficiencies" in compliance with anti-money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act rules and regulations.

For two years, Democrats and Republicans have been at an impasse over the nomination of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Director Richard Cordray, and next week Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is once again calling up the long-awaited confirmation vote.

Loan performance data show the entire case against GSE underwriting standards, and their role in the financial crisis, is based on social stereotyping, smoke and mirrors, and little else.

Little Rock, Arkansas and Oakland, California objected to a multibillion-dollar settlement of a price-fixing case against Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. over the fees charged to merchants to process credit-card transactions.

Tim Ryan, a veteran lobbyist who runs JPMorgan Chase's regulatory strategy, served until January as chief executive of SIFMA, which moved last week to stop the sending of vote tallies to shareholders.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's focus on discrimination in the auto loan business will likely force the banks it targets to stop paying bonuses to car dealers that originate high-interest loans. Changing practices in the rest of the industry could prove tougher.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is bringing the battle over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau back to the forefront next week with a long-awaited confirmation vote on Richard Cordray, the agency's director.

Federal Reserve Gov. Sarah Bloom Raskin warned Thursday that the government's tightening fiscal policies and a slow housing recovery will continue to restrain a U.S. economic recovery.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is seeking to recover $48 million from officers and directors of a Florida bank that collapsed in 2010 following heavy defaults on commercial real estate loans.

JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and the world's largest banks won rollbacks in final Dodd-Frank Act rules that promise to transform the private swaps market by increasing competition.

The Treasury Department has moved to rein in Mt. Gox, the world’s largest exchange for the all-digital currency Bitcoin. The move raises the specter that the government is intent on eliminating anonymous Bitcoin transactions, which could dramatically reduce the currency’s allure to many users.