Law and regulation

The Federal Reserve Board has terminated enforcement actions against Anadarko Bank & Trust in Oklahoma and Hanmi Financial in Los Angeles.

Fees charged on homebuyers are meant to cover risk and protect taxpayers from losses, not pay for unrelated government programs.

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Justice agreed Thursday to collaborate on enforcing fair lending laws to avoid duplicating efforts.

The Senate Banking Committee had tough questions for Shaun Donovan, on the heels of a disappointing report on the mortgage insurer's financial health last month.

Opponents have failed to halt momentum on a bill to extend the Transaction Account Guarantee program, and the Senate is slated to vote on the legislation as early as next week.

"It's clear the Roundtable's new chief executive plans on sticking around; this isn't a pit stop in his political career," writes American Banker's Editor-at-Large Barbara Rehm.

The Senate is preparing to vote soon on a bill to keep TAG alive even as various interests, including large institutions and money-market mutual funds, fight to shut the program down.

Capitol Bancorp had to postpone a bankruptcy hearing because, it says, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. repeatedly blocked it from paying the due-diligence costs of its new investors.

Next week, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will focus on cross-border issues and the 2013 budget in two separate meetings.

HSBC (HBC) may be about to pay $1.8 billion to settle charges the bank served as a gateway for money laundering.

Financial institutions should, among other things, implement an information governance program, perform periodic privacy audits and learn how data is managed in the cloud.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., announced Thursday he would leave the Senate to head up The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

In an industry where everyone seems to have an opinion, these financial services veterans have learned to leverage Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media to their advantage.

Chicago will become the first city in the nation to provide the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with information about local lenders' activities, including potentially fraudulent ones. The CFPB's Richard Cordray hopes other municipalities will follow suit.

An online advertising firm has settled FTC charges that it used "history sniffing" to gather data from consumers about their interest in issues from debt relief and credit repair to fertility and incontinence.

Remain vocal in conveying your opposition to unwarranted regulatory proposals. Understand your true competition by studying peer data. Eat, breathe, preach and execute sales – but sell to profitable niches in a profitable manner.

Put aside the "doom and gloom" about the fiscal cliff and focus on the things banks having going for them in the long run, BB&T CEO Kelly King urges.

The Treasury Department raised more than $7 million from the sale of nearly 5.8 million warrants to purchase common stock in Zions Bancorp. (ZION).

Here's what you need to know about Tim Pawlenty, the new leader of the Financial Services Roundtable: he's nice, normal, self-deprecating and ready to emerge as an influential voice in the years ahead on industry issues.

The Office of Financial Research held its first advisory committee meeting on Wednesday, asking a range of industry participants how the agency can better collect and analyze financial data to detect systemic threats.