Law and regulation

We must make clear that in all bank failures all creditors, other than insured depositors, will face risk of loss so that neither the FDIC nor taxpayers will lose money.

Forcing traders to strap computers on their heads may sound extreme, but consider the current threat. Saving billions from trading losses might take the sting out of the loss of privacy.

As regulatory scrutiny of third-party vendors is increasing, banks must improve their research and monitoring of the business they outsource.

Midwest BankCentre in Lemay, Mo., has warned its customers of a security breach, possibly involving its third-party vendors.

Mortgage servicers tied to the independent foreclosure review settlement will begin sending the first wave of $1.2 billion in checks to troubled borrowers on Friday, federal regulators said.

An honest debate over our "too big to fail" problem and a sound policy response are incompatible with a wait-and-see approach to the laws already on the books.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke rejected claims by big banks Monday that they should be able to see the equations the central bank uses when it calculates their stress test scores.

A provision that would raise capital standards at both small and large banks could potentially hamper the legislative effort to break up the biggest institutions.

Two Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board members are urging policymakers to strengthen a leverage ratio that would be applied to banks of all sizes before regulators finalize the U.S. version of Basel III rules.

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has started taking consumer complaints on money transfers before it finalizes amendments to its remittance rule.

If we're powerless to break up the banks, we're also powerless to bail them out should they fail. Bloated size, leverage and managerial dysfunction will do the work the public can’t.

MutualFirst Financial (MFSF) in Muncie, Ind., has reduced its involvement in the Treasury Department's small-business lending fund.

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP announced last week that Dwight Smith, a former attorney with the now-closed Office of Thrift Supervision, was joined the firm's Washington office as a partner.

Ronald F. Bieker, a 25-year veteran of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., has joined the banking and financial advisory team of SolomonEdwards as a senior executive advisor.

Viewed through the framework provided by the economist Nassim Taleb, a centrally directed financial system with uniform risk management and prescribed products is fragile.

The Federal Trade Commission is refunding more than $107,000 to Spanish-speaking consumers who lost money to Dinamica Financiera LLC, a company that sold bogus mortgage loan modifications or foreclosure relief services.

WASHINGTON — State regulators in Arizona closed the $45 million-asset Gold Canyon Bank late Friday, the fifth bank failure this year.

A former executive at the defunct Appalachian Community Bank in Ellijay, Ga., was sentenced to prison Friday for running a fraudulent loan scheme.

The Fed, FDIC and OCC have so far given no indication of developing a public complaint database like the one managed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but that could soon change.

A draft bill by Sens. David Vitter, R-La., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, would scrap pending Basel III requirements and instead impose a higher capital standard: 10% for all banks and an additional surcharge of 5% for institutions with more than $400 billion of assets.