Law and regulation

The FTC asked a U.S. district court to halt an operation that allegedly placed more than $70 million in bogus charges on consumers’ phone bills.

Federal regulators are partnering up to take a close look at whether banks provide collections agencies with sufficient evidence to back up demands that consumers repay debts. The action could result in a revamping of the multi-billion dollar business.

Federal regulators have hinted they'd like to toughen the rules governing the way banks collect delinquent consumer debt. Making them stick would likely prove challenging.

Regulators and banks should develop a system allowing lenders to go bust without damaging the world economy to help restore public trust in the industry, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said.

Citigroup's Michael picks a team much like him, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau weighs in on force-placed insurance and banks release good-news, bad-news earnings reports.

The Minnesota Department of Commerce closed the $50.2 million-asset 1st Regents Bank in Andover on Friday.

Defendants in the Federal Trade Commission’s case against Rumson, Bolling & Associates agreed to a settlement that permanently bans them from the debt collection business.

The CFPB issued rules Friday that ban compensation to mortgage originators based on loan terms, such as higher interest rates or a high-cost loan. The rule is meant to prevent lenders from steering borrowers into riskier loans for a higher payouts.

IMGCAP(1)]

Comptroller Tom Curry discusses whether Dodd-Frank ended "too big to fail," the blowback from community banks on Basel III, how he views preemption and lessons learned from the foreclosure settlement.

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will require mortgage lenders to release free copies of home appraisals to borrowers as part of several appraisal rules released this week.

U.S. Century Bank in Doral, Fla., sold about $120 million of loans in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Barney Frank is not the only person who thinks he would be a suitable temporary senator. His bid has now drawn the attention of a group that backed the Senate candidacy of Elizabeth Warren, architect of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

As the U.S. continues its conversion to EMV chip-card technology, the Durbin amendment's requirement for supporting multiple debit networks is presenting yet another challenge to overcome.

The Federal Reserve Board has terminated a written agreement with Blue Valley Ban Corp. in Overland Park, Kan.

The U.S. Federal Reserve Board plans to get a better idea of how Americans are making payments — when they don’t use cash.

House Democrats, including Maxine Waters, want a court to uphold a rule mandated under Dodd-Frank that requires disclosure of foreign extraction payments.

Real GSE reform could take years. That's too bad, but in the meantime, the FHFA can start to redesign the securitization process – and phase out redundancies between Fannie and Freddie.

American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. As excerpted from the Comments sections of AmericanBanker.com articles.

The concept of making anonymous online transactions is in the spotlight because of the prominence of the digital currency Bitcoin, but most consumers remain uneasy with the cryptocurrency's instability and risk. An alternative for the privacy-minded might sprout from Tor, or The Onion Router.