Law and regulation

The president and six former officers of a failed Savannah, Ga., bank were indicted on Jan. 11 on charges of fraud and conspiracy related to failed commercial loans.

President Obama is considering two women for senior economic positions, weighing Ruth Porat, CFO at Morgan Stanley, for deputy Treasury secretary and Wal-Mart Foundation President Sylvia Mathews Burwell for budget director.

Banks, subprime lenders and borrowers had varying reactions to the agency's long-awaited ruling on qualified mortgages.

The Obama administration has ruled out minting money as a way to sidestep the nation's borrowing limit. The Treasury Department will not produce a trillion-dollar platinum coin to pay the federal government's bills, the Washington Post reported Saturday.

Cezar Butu of Romania, who pleaded guilty to taking part in hacking terminals at hundreds of U.S. Subway sandwich shops from 2009 to 2011, was sentenced this week to 21 months in prison.

Westside Community Bank in University Place, Wash., became the first failed institution of 2013 late Friday.

An enterprise that compiled and sold criminal record reports has agreed to settle FTC charges that it operated as a consumer reporting agency without adhering to Fair Credit Reporting Act rules.

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Subprime mortgages are likely to become harder to make and more expensive to sell in the secondary market based on the new qualified mortgage rule.

The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) is toasting the Government Accountability Office (GAO) for agreeing to examine the economic benefit that megabanks derive from their too-big-to-fail status.

By downgrading the CRA rating of JPMorgan Chase, the OCC demonstrated it is capable of holding a major bank accountable for a deplorable record of serving the credit needs of low- and moderate-income communities.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released its final rule on Thursday, establishing new standards for all mortgages.

In speech to California bankers, comptroller indicates 'Volcker' trading ban and securitization rules could be completed soon.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released its final rules restricting fees and lump-sum payments for certain high-cost loans on Thursday.

"Despite widespread fears by lenders that a 800-page rule released Thursday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would end mortgage lending as we know it, the final regulation appeared to be significantly less onerous than many expected," writes American Banker's Rachel Witkowski.

The CFPB's final Qualified Mortgage rule exacerbates our dependence on the GSEs and FHA, potentially harms a large swath of potential borrowers and severely handicaps the market’s ability to effectively serve customers.

Regulators may be getting ready to order JPMorgan Chase to bolster its safeguards against money laundering.

There must be a concerted effort to open the way to successful homeownership to more Americans. This should include encouraging shorter-term mortgages so low down payment borrowers build equity faster.

While consumer groups were unhappy, lenders were pleased that the definition of qualified mortgages was so broad and that banks were given a safe harbor for prime loans.

Unlimited TAG insurance of noninterest-bearing deposits ended with 2012. Any shifting of cash from banks to money market funds has been modest so far.