Law and regulation

The Treasury Department has unloaded its latest round of bank stocks from the Troubled Asset Relief Program at a deep discount.

Confining banks to "narrow" or "traditional" activities, as some policymakers and pundits advocate, would drive even more customers to the shadow sector. Do we really want shadow banks to own the financial future?

The Competitive Enterprise Institute and the 60 Plus Association are urging the Senate to delay confirmation of Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, until the implications of a recent federal court case are better understood.

Tougher on banks than on debt buyers, the FTC found banks and other creditors bear responsibility for selling consumer debts with scant documentation. Possibly erroneous records are a "significant" concern.

Many of the changes, which were outlined late last year in the FHA's annual report to Congress, will raise the cost of home loans for consumers.

Visa shareholders rejected a proposal Wednesday that would have required the nation’s largest card network to disclose publicly more information about its lobbying activities, according to the activist shareholder group behind the measure.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency unexpectedly announced Wednesday that Michael Brosnan, its point man for large banks, was leaving his post to become examiner-in-charge of Zions Bank. The move was unusual and effectively a demotion.

Despite the bipartisan nature of the Panel's first vote last week, the new leaders of the House Financial Services Committee, Chairman Jeb Hensarling, and ranking Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters, continue to dispute the effects of the Dodd-Frank reform law.

Regulatory cooperation is the key to navigating the division of responsibilities that the Dodd-Frank Act made to bank regulation, Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry said Wednesday.

With a federal court endangering the status of its director and its second in command leaving, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has suddenly been forced to shift from playing offense to defense.

Two experts, Tom Hoenig and John Dugan, have very different takes on how policymakers should end too big to fail. But figuring out which one is right is daunting.

Big banks must get smaller. Small banks must get bigger. All banks must turn their attention away from crisis-era baggage and show how they'll consistently make money from now on.

American Express Co. finds itself swirling in the middle of anti-trust litigation and proposed settlements that the company isn't directly a party to.

HSBC, the $2.7 trillion-asset company, said Wednesday it has named James Comey, a former U.S. deputy attorney general, to its board and formed a new board committee to oversee compliance with laws that aim to deter money laundering and other crimes.

Many of the nation's largest financial institutions lowered their spending on lobbying the federal government in 2012, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. Although data is only available through Dec. 4, 2012, the reports suggest that year-end spending will be down significantly from 2011. That trend may reflect lower expectations for major legislative changes during a presidential election year.

CO-OP Financial Services hopes the model used in one of the oldest staples of credit union cooperation, the shared branch, can drive new digital commerce innovation such as person-to-person payments.

Christy Romero, the inspector general monitoring Tarp, says the same financial institutions deemed too big to fail have only gotten bigger.

A legislator in San Francisco is seeking a review of possible losses to the city from banks' alleged manipulation of a benchmark that determines the price at which banks lend to one another.

Sens. Sherrod Brown and Chuck Grassley are requesting information about the Justice Department's prosecutorial decisions regarding some of the country's biggest financial institutions.

Without a permanent director, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has no authority to create or enforce regulations against nonbanks. However, attorneys and industry consultants say several recent mortgage regulations approved by Richard Cordray may still be upheld.