Law and regulation

A sharp rise in noninterest income — including gains on asset sales — helped banks and thrifts record their best quarterly earnings total in six years, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said Tuesday.

Banks often choose not to bring questions about products, terms and marketing to regulators, citing fear of retribution from front-line examiners. Creation of the CFPB separates consumer policymaking from examination activities, offering hope for open, clear communication.

House Republicans are preparing to add several members to the Financial Services Committee next year, as well as kicking two current members off the panel.

Curry praised banks' tighter mortgage underwriting standards but cautioned that they are squeezing out potential borrowers, particularly low-income families and minorities

Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, is leaving Congress in February to head the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

With just a few short weeks until Congress adjourns for the year, Washington is experiencing a rush of activity covering everything from a potential extention of the TAG program to the delay of the Volcker and remittance rules. Following were the highlights of last week:

Stewart Larsen, Bank of the West's head of mortgage lending, still frets about pending regulation, but he prefers to stay focused on matters he can control.

Several important bills, including one protecting information banks share with the CFPB and another nixing the requirement that banks have a physical sign disclosing ATM fees, could be poised for passage in the Senate during the lame duck session. But the fate of others, including an extension of TAG, is less clear.

The money in TAG accounts is the hottest of the hot. If interest rates rise, these funds will disappear, hurting liquidity and capital for the banks that use the program.

Adyen is launching a portable card reader that accepts both mag-stripe and EMV chip-card payments — the latter a feature that’s still rare in the U.S. even at hard-wired point of sale terminals.

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Ameris Bancorp (ABCB) in Moultrie, Ga., will redeem preferred shares it had issued to the Treasury Department as part of the Trouble Asset Relief Program.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling is criticizing a provision in a House-approved immigration bill that would extend higher guarantee fees at the government-sponsored enterprises.

The mood at a consumer finance conference Friday was one of anxiety about the pace of the housing recovery, the onslaught of new rules and the federal government's long-term role in housing finance.

President Obama formally approves confirmations of Martin Gruenberg to run the FDIC and for Thomas Hoenig to be the vice chairman.

Policymakers appear unwilling to take on the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as they face other issues and the housing market begins to recover.

A bill to merge the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has been introduced by Reps. Barney Frank and Mike Capuano.

This newly discovered, expanded version of Aesop's most famous fable bears an eerie resemblance to the modern day and sheds new light on its tragic moral.

After 33 years as a lobbyist for the American Bankers Association, Peter Blocklin is retiring from the trade group. He plans to open a small consulting firm called Rotunda Strategies.

Small banks face a tough outlook for 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warns credit reporting firms, Barney Frank's impact on banking.