Law and regulation

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.

The CFPB released rules Thursday that ban certain fees for modifying high-cost loans and expand the universe of loans protected by federal limits.

Five Senate Democrats are urging bank regulators to end payday-like lending.

The White House officially nominated Jacob Lew as Treasury secretary, after widespread speculation that Lew would get the nod.

Acquirers consider the Payment Card Industry data security standards slightly more important as a source of revenue than as an approach to security, new survey data indicates.

The checklist for routine maintenance on the three automated teller machines owned by First Community Bank and Trust of Beecher, Ill., contains one head-scratching item: the maintenance worker is regularly required to take a photo of the machine to keep on file at the $147 million-asset bank as a defense in potential lawsuits. Now Greg Ohlendorf, the bank's chief executive officer, can cross that mundane task off the list.

Donna Goodrich, new chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, promises to represent banks of all sizes — not just bigger ones like BB&T — and says FHLBs could be pivotal to housing reform.

Enterprise Financial in St. Louis, Mo., has fully exited the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The Federal Reserve Board has lifted a memorandum of understanding against First M&F (FMFC) in Kosciusko, Miss.

The CFPB released its long-awaited final rule laying out how lenders must ensure borrowers have the ability to repay a loan, including creating a carve-out for qualified mortgages.

Securities regulators have charged three executives of a failed bank in Virginia with deceiving investors about the health of its loan portfolio at the apex of the financial crisis.

White House Chief of Staff Jacob Lew, who is widely expected to be nominated as Treasury secretary, is something of an unknown quantity to the financial industry.

Foreign banks operating within the U.S. will be penalized despite a change made by regulators to provide more time to comply with pending swap restrictions.

The Fed's foreign bank regulation proposal may make sense, but it appears to signal that global standards are giving way to an every-country-for-itself approach.

A neighborhood association wants regulators to stop the company and CEO John Kanas from expanding in New York.

Giving regulators more levers to pull and buttons to push with respect to the financial system only creates a false sense of security. The new regulatory powers come with few meaningful accountability checks.

President Barack Obama plans to name White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew tomorrow as his choice for Treasury secretary, replacing Timothy F. Geithner, a person familiar with the process said.