Law and regulation

An Australian telecommunications company created a phony collection firm that sent letters to consumers and operated a sham complaints hotline, according to the Federal Court of Australia.

Hundreds of protestors showed up at the home of Edward DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, calling for an end to his tenure with an already penned resignation letter awaiting his signature.

Rep Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said the panel will not accept testimony from CFPB Director Richard Cordray on the agency's semi-annual report, arguing that he was not legally appointed to the position.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke will be missing at this year's Jackson Hole symposium due to a personal scheduling conflict, a Fed spokesman said Monday.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced Monday that it was restructuring the agency to add an office that will directly deal with financial institutions and their trade groups.

Navy Federal Credit Union, the largest such institution in the U.S., is unlikely to be designated systemically important, according to a member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council.

After lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill failed, banks that rely heavily on deposits from Latin America are going to court to halt new regulation that requires them to report to interest paid to nonresidents.

The National Credit Union Administration has certified last month's member vote at HarborOne Credit Union in Brockton, Mass., to convert to a mutual savings bank.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a guide stating that the impact on small banks from a new escrow rule for higher-priced mortgages should be minimal.

The European Union intensified its campaign against U.S. Federal Reserve proposals to toughen oversight of bank units belonging to overseas lenders, warning of "potential retaliation" against the plans.

"There are parts of Dodd-Frank that are good," but other parts of the sweeping financial reform law fall under the category of "more regulation, not better," according to William Harrison, the former CEO of JPMorgan Chase.

Viewpointe has released the Viewpointe ACH Originator Compliance Self-Assessment, a tool for businesses that use automated clearing house payments to assess their compliance with network rules.

Fixating on whether to break up the biggest banks puts policymakers at risk of re-fighting the last war while giving short shrift to the emerging risks that imperil the financial system.

With bitcoin in the media spotlight, everyone seems to have an opinion on the price. Few recognize the profound implications of decentralized money for the monetary system, society and government – not to mention the emerging business opportunities.

ACI Worldwide has launched the ACI Universal Payments Platform, throwing its hat into a busy ring of companies building technology to allow financial institutions, processors and retailers to keep up with the nimble startups and other factors that are reshaping the payments industry.

Consumers filed a total of 1,139 lawsuits in March, up from 1,043 in February, as Fair Debt Collection Practices Act cases continue to post slight monthly gains in 2013, bucking a downward trend seen last year, according to WebRecon LLC.

The introduction of more private, risk-bearing capital to housing finance should expand homeownership possibilities.

When PayPal begins distributing the EMV-chip card version of its PayPal Here mobile card reader in the U.K. this year, it will follow a pattern the eBay unit established in the U.S. of targeting a narrower market than its rivals do.

Tim Pawlenty, the CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable, weighs in on the debate over breaking up the big banks, and says that the Dodd-Frank Act ended too big to fail in the eyes of policymakers.

Regulators seized two banks in Florida, and one in Kentucky, in a trio of failures Friday.