Law and regulation

Nearly a month has passed since Visa Inc. offered its technology for the creation of a common debit code for EMV chip-card payments — a necessity under federal regulation. Yet it is becoming apparent that issuers remain in a waiting game that could last several more months.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said recent profits at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should go toward helping build a new mortgage finance system.

TBTF may just be the cool "in" phrase for the wealthy libertine set, according to Comedy Central's "The Daily Show."

Oak Ridge Financial Services Group in Minneapolis announced Feb. 25 that Savino "Bud" Ranallo has been named senior vice president of institutional sales.

The American Bankers Association's new spots argue that credit unions' tax exemption amounts to "indefensible and outdated special treatment."

Federal agencies have the authority and ability to raise minimum capital in a direct and meaningful way, outside of the Basel III process.

The CFPB is investigating whether college-endorsed banking products provide students with a good deal.

New law should put an end to nuisance lawsuits over missing ATM fee placards.

The qualified mortgage rule issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could be disruptive to the FHA single-family program, so the Department of Housing and Urban Development is starting the process of issuing its own QM rule.

Bankers must concentrate on achieving greater efficiencies, stop focusing on short-term goals and strike the right balance between unacceptably poor compliance practices and unattainable perfection.

Flushing Financial in Lake Success, N.Y. is now a bank. The $4.5 billion-asset company said Thursday that it had also merged Flushing Savings Bank and Flushing Commercial Bank to create a commercial bank chartered in New York.

Sens. Brown and Vitter said Thursday that they plan to introduce joint legislation addressing "too big to fail."

The 11 state attorneys general who have joined a lawsuit against the Dodd-Frank Act are arguing for their case to be heard despite a request by the government to dismiss the suit.

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew presided over his first Financial Stability Oversight Council on Thursday only hours after being sworn into his position by President Obama.

The Senate Banking Committee held another hearing on FHA's capital shortfall Thursday, debating whether to focus on stabilizing the agency's finances or pushing for more substantive changes.

"One of the greatest threats facing not just banks but many businesses … is hacking and the possible theft of proprietary data and personal information about customers," Fed Gov. Raskin warned.

Making home loans that aren't "qualified mortgages" will soon carry legal risk. Will making only QM loans expose lenders to fair-lending claims under the disparate impact doctrine? Washington must clarify.

Thirteen mortgage servicers will begin compensating more than 4 million borrowers beginning in April as part of the amended consent orders released by regulators on Thursday.

During the Credit Union National Association conference on Wednesday, Richard Cordray, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said smaller financial institutions should lend beyond a new ultrasafe class of mortgages created by the agency.

Checking account regulations are outdated even for their primary product. Why would you want to regulate prepaid cards with a set of archaic rules?