Law and regulation

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.

The troubled Metropolitan Bank Group in Chicago has been ordered by the Federal Reserve not to boost the pay of its directors or officers without the Fed's permission.

Regulators must "resist pressures to ring-fence national markets," said Mark Carney, chairman of the Financial Stability Board and future head of the Bank of England.

The burden on small banks from a new escrow rule for higher-priced mortgages should be relatively small, according to guidance released by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has lifted a regulatory order from Macatawa Bank (MCBC) in Holland, Mich.

Possibly viewing Bitfloor, a popular Bitcoin exchange, as a risky money transmitting business, Capital One Financial Corp. has closed the exchange's bank account, prompting Bitfloor to halt operations. The incident may portend a growing wariness of businesses that handle virtual currencies.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's has decided that trust-only banks must first get FDIC insurance, a move that may drive greater interest in state trust charters and subject some parties to a federal freeze on nonfinancial firms owning limited-purpose banks.