Law and regulation

In update of the FDIC's community bank initiatives, officials reveal a Web-based feature designed to ensure examiner data requests are germane to individual exams.

Pan American Bank didn't let President Obama rest the day after his reelection. It urged him in a video Wednesday to make financial literacy and serving the unbanked a priority.

Regulators would prefer that banks maintain higher levels of reserves, while accountants may start pushing more institutions to release reserves as loan problems dissipate.

The Illinois Republican lost her seat to former Rep. Bill Foster on Tuesday night, opening up a chairman spot on the insurance, housing and community opportunity subcommittee.

The rise of the prepaid card is sure to be one of the Durbin Amendment's biggest legacies. It also suggests any savings merchants derive from the law will be short-lived.

The Obama victory moves the financial industry to Plan B, according Dealbook. Wall Street may need to set a new tone in efforts to minimize the impact of Dodd-Frank. Most of the focus from the large banks may center around implementation of the Volcker Rule on proprietary trading.

American Express' directors were sued by a shareholder over practices that led to a $112.5 million settlement of claims that it violated consumer safeguards.

A West Virginia woman is suing Toyota Motor Credit Corp. and collection agency MRS BPO, LLC for repeatedly trying to contact her after she informed them she was being represented by attorneys.

Capital is important, but ample loan-loss reserves, governed by stringent supervision, are a much more direct, responsive way to account for credit risk.

JPMorgan Chase reached a settlement with the SEC to resolve two investigations related to mortgage-backed bonds handled by JPMorgan and Bear Stearns, which the bank acquired in 2008.

Will Elizabeth Warren get a seat on the Senate Banking Committee? Will she thwart efforts to modify the Dodd-Frank Act? Republicans and the financial industry executives are anxious to know.

Enterprise Financial Services (EFSC) in St. Louis, Mo., has repurchased the $35 million of preferred stock it had issued to the Treasury Department under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Standard Bancshares in Hickory Hills, Ill., announced on Wednesday that it had entered into a set of definitive agreements with a consortium of private-equity investors for more than $130 million.

The elections on Nov. 6 mostly delivered the status quo, but raised a host of questions about how lawmakers will tackle the fiscal cliff, big bank breakups and housing finance reform.

The New Jersey company, which had a disappointing third quarter, also entered into a written agreement with the OCC recently. The regulatory order will likely delay plans for the mutual holding company to pursue a second-step conversion, leading some analysts to peg Roma as a good acquisition target.

What do the next four years of an Obama administration hold for the Dodd-Frank Act? There may be less talk of repeal and rollbacks, but some Democrats in Congress are pushing the agencies implementing the law to heed industry suggestions.

A number of critical races for the banking industry have been decided, though votes are still being tallied in some election contests across the country. Democrats will maintain control in the Senate, while Republicans keep the majority in the House.We offer the results of ten tight races in the Senate and House that American Banker highlighted earlier this month as critical to the industry.

The Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on the Basel III proposal on Nov. 14, according to a Senate aide.

Central Pacific said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. had lifted a memorandum of understanding that obligated the $4.3 billion-asset company’s bank to maintain adequate capital, improve asset quality, provide sufficiently for loan losses and reduce classified assets.

The current argument for new MMF "remedies" seems implicitly to be based on the assumption that runs cannot be anticipated and on the notion that the run that followed Reserve's action sprung unexpectedly and without warning from the Lehman filing.