Law and regulation

In an appearance on former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's TV show, Rolling Stone columnist Matt Taibbi and his host were outraged that HSBC did not face criminal prosecution after the government said it allegedly helped drug dealers and terrorists launder money.

Jeffersonville Bancorp (JFBC) is set to become the latest New York company to exchange the federal charter of its bank for oversight by a state regulator.

The holding company for AmericanWest Bank in Spokane, Wash., has agreed to repay what PremierWest Bancorp (PRWT) owes the Troubled Asset Relief Program before the banks merge.

QBE's concession, made amid scrutiny of its relationship with major banks, would save investors and homeowners in the state $98 million a year. Part of that money would come from reducing the commissions it pays to banks.

A U.S. district court has temporarily halted a debt relief operation that allegedly charged consumers hundreds of dollars based on claims that it could obtain rates as low as zero percent.

The Transaction Account Guarantee program ran into trouble, a columnist warned of innovation's risk to banks and JPM's Jamie Dimon took to the spotlight.

Banks might have more success winning over underbanked consumers if they lowered initial deposit requirements and offered banking services to noncustomers, according to a new report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

A battle over Senate procedures and the FDIC's absence from the debate were viewed as contributing to blocking a bill to extend the TAG program.

"Consumers disputed up to 38 million items on their consumer credit reports last year at the three largest consumer reporting agencies, according to a report released Thursday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau," writes American Banker's Rachel Witkowski.

According to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, regulators are close to completing the Volcker Rule that will ban proprietary trading at U.S. firms.

House Republicans continued their attacks on the Volcker Rule on Thursday, arguing it was unnecessary and overly complex just a day after Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled regulators were close to finalizing it.

The National Credit Union Administration showed strong improvement in an employee satisfaction survey released by the Partnership for Public Service.

The House Financial Services Committee addressed concerns for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission regarding the agency's implementation of derivatives provisions laid out in the Dodd-Frank Reform Act.

Dwight Fettig, the staff director of the Senate Banking Committee, will return to the private sector at yearend, while several other staffers are receiving promotions. Charles Yi, the chief counsel and deputy staff director, will succeed Fettig.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s board of directors voted to approve a $2.7 billion budget for 2013. With fewer anticipated costs for bank failures and their clean-ups, the budget for the upcoming year had an 18% drop from previous years.

Twitter's immense popularity has caught the attention of many established payment companies and entrepreneurs. Several have attempted to turn the microblogging service into a payment channel, but so far there are few success stories.

"Regulators from the U.S. and the United Kingdom took a major step Monday toward proving that they could dismantle a large globally active financial institution, outlining how the two sides would cooperate in the event of a cross-border resolution," writesAmerican Banker's Joe Adler.

A dispute in North Dakota over assessment fees for its state-owned bank could stymie efforts to open similar banks elsewhere.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a proposal Thursday that would let lenders test various disclosure programs on consumers in an effort to make disclosures more concise and cost-effective.

Some readers quickly labeled all 19 megabanks' failure to pass the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's new risk tests as evidence that "Too Big to Fail" remains very much alive. Others blamed the OCC's stricter standards.