Law and regulation

Washington's budget deal contained mixed news for banks; HSBC sought to downsize it branches; and rivals pushed ahead with efforts to replace bricks and mortar with phones and cameras.

The Treasury Department has threatened to punish JPMorgan for failing to turn over documents to regulators investigating the bank's ties to Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme.

Visitors of the Vatican Museum in Vatican City will need cash to buy tickets and souvenirs in the aftermath of Italy’s central bank ordering all payment terminals deactivated, AFP reported Jan. 3.

In a Q&A with PaymentsSource, CEO Philip Beck explains how technology can help manage the complexity of international payments and the value proposition it brings to merchant acquirers.

Overaggressive growth, reliance on commercial real estate lending and use of brokered deposits were strategies common to banks that failed in the crisis, a government report said Thursday.

Banks have been granted more time to comply with new restrictions on swaps activities by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said Thursday it would allow more time for banks to comply with new restrictions on swaps activities.

Bankers are expected to learn in 2013 what trades the Volcker Rule allows, what qualifies as a "qualified mortgage" and what it means to be "systemically important."

Small banks continue to rake in revenue from interchange fees on debit cards, despite fears that the Durbin amendment would hurt them as much as larger institutions, according to a report released by the Federal Trade Commission.

Large numbers of yield-hungry banks have gorged on municipal bonds, and the industry’s overall holdings of the paper have edged up.

If things are truly bigger in Texas, then mPowa CEO Dan Wagner figures it's a good place for merchants to be able to accept credit card payments via mobile devices in those wide, open spaces.

Chairmen of the House Financial Services Committee requested to postpone the Volcker Rule until 2015 only three weeks after U.S. regulators said they would delay the Jan. 1 start date for new capital requirements.

Exorbitant costs, excessive complexity torpedo review program. But a proposed $10 billion settlement faces problems of its own.

BankThink editors Marc Hochstein and Jeanine Skowronski recap 10 of the blog's posts they found most memorable in 2012.

Fair Debt Collection Practices Act lawsuits are projected to end 2012 down roughly three percent from 2011, according to data gathered from U.S. district courts.

The Congressional agenda for 2013 will include lawmakers overseeing implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act and possible advances on housing finance reform.

The banking industry is expected to benefit marginally from the deal to avert the fiscal cliff, but looming fights over tax reform and the debt ceiling remain.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized its first rule, took its first enforcement actions, and landed its first deals with state regulators and municipalities to enhance data sharing all during the agency's first year. The CFPB's most challenging work, however, is still to come.

Rep. Barney Frank opened up with American Banker's Rob Blackwell in a 2012 interview, discussing what motivated him to get into politics, his personal life, and the cause of political gridlock in Congress.

"With a divided Congress slow to confirm appointees, only one of the four federal bank regulators had a permanent chief, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board of directors had just three members. No one on the board was the confirmed head of an agency," writes American Banker's Joe Adler.