Law and regulation

A federal appeals court ruling last week might force Democrats to cut a deal with Republicans over the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The state is receiving a notably large share of national mortgage settlement benefits because of the level of harm the state sustained during our nation's mortgage crisis.

National Bank Holdings (NBHC) reported a higher quarterly profit thanks to a wider net interest margin and lower tax and loan-loss provisions.

Raj Date, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's No. 2 who has helped build the bureau from the ground up, rejected the claim that the 'qualified mortgage' rule will push lenders out of the business and said the mortgage industry managed "to do almost everything wrong" prior to crisis.

Stress testing is far from a fail-safe, but does increase a bank's resilience to economic shocks.

Visa and Citigroup, working with the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion, plan to connect governments, NGOs, the private sector and others to advance global financial access by the end of this decade. Their Financial Inclusion 2020 campaign aims to do this by increasing access to credit, savings, payment tools and insurance for people all over the world.

Mortgage earnings climbed to 14% of total revenues at Wells Fargo in the fourth quarter. Banks say they can scale down operations quickly when volume fizzles.

Eight new members have joined the committee that advises the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on community-bank policy.

Ingenico SA, a French provider of payment terminals and services, agreed to buy online-payment company Ogone for 360 million euros ($484 million) as part of a push to expand outside Europe.

The alternative payment provider Dwolla's recent partnership with the Iowa state government earns the company credibility while also opening the door to an area that needs to modernize the way it handles money.

A ruling by a federal appeals court last week that President Obama acted improperly in recess appointing members of the National Labor Relations Board may encourage Democrats to cut a deal on the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is standing up for megabanks against growing criticism and calls for their breakup.

Richard Cordray's recess appointment to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may ultimately be invalidated, but legal experts say several recent mortgage regulations approved on his watch may still be upheld.

EverBank and OneWest appear set to do what regulators and the largest mortgage servicers concluded was impractical: Finish the independent foreclosure reviews.

Banks and national regulators are too slow to draw up living wills showing how large international lenders can be wound down if they fail, the Financial Stability Board said today.

Research may fail to prove the Community Reinvestment Act contributed to the subprime housing crisis. But its supporters also can’t prove that it didn't.

"Despite delays and protests, compliance with myriad Dodd-Frank and Basel III rules will likely accelerate in the coming year - particularly those around mandated stress tests requiring banks to demonstrate protection from adverse economic pressures," writes American Banker's John Adams.

The inspector general monitoring Tarp says that, despite its previous warnings, the Treasury Department has failed to improve its policies and procedures to ensure that its own guidelines on executive pay are met.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will let some borrowers who kept up payments as their homes lost value erase their debts by giving up the properties.

Reopening the mortgage securitization pipeline is a vital step toward a housing market recovery that will boost the wider economy, Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry said today in a Las Vegas speech.