Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

A crackdown on payday lending looks increasingly likely and risks sending low-income consumers in search unregulated financing options on the Internet and abroad. That threat is a key topic of discussion at American Banker’s Underbanked Financial Services Forum, which wraps up Friday in Miami. National Editor Maria Aspan reports from the event.

The collapse of the Galleon Group hedge fund and criminal conviction of its founder, Raj Rajaratnam, is just the latest example of a cataclysmic about-face in the finance industry. Anita Raghavan, author of "Billionaire's Apprentice," a just-released book on Galleon, discusses why such scandals recur with such frequency and what cautionary lessons bankers and others can draw.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released a report in which it found widespread misuse of overdraft fees among banks. Agency acting director Richard Cordray warned of potential harm to consumers and indicated that action is likely. American Banker editors discuss what the CFPB found how it's likely to respond in a market worth $32 billion in revenues to the banking industry.

Banks and insurers are expected to make the case at closed-door hearings being held later this week by the Federal Housing Finance Agency that forced-placed homeowner's policies should remain the purview of state regulators. The discussions are part of a broader debate over how to reform the force-placed insurance market. The controversy revolves around claims by consumer advocates, state regulators and others that banks and insurers have colluded to drive up the cost of such coverage, which is "force-placed" on often struggling homeowners who allow their standard hazard policies to lapse.

New indications that an overdraft fee crackdown is looming has added fresh urgency to bankers' quest to expand revenues. American Banker editors discuss some of the latest twists in the industry's search for ways to generate new business and cut costs.

Bankers and tech vendors have given up on the reliability of passwords and other conventional forms of authentication. Now some are turning to hardware as a more secure option. American Banker editors discuss the advantages, and limits, of such options.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has hired a force-placed insurance industry lobbyist to simultaneously advise the government on the same issues. Is the move is indicative of a federal housing regulatory regime that's been coopted by the regulated?

Hackers are again targeting popular third-party websites in the hope of compromising bank customers' accounts. American Banker staffers discuss what banks can do to hedge against a threat that exists outside their networks.

Banks on the block are still trading at reasonable valuations, and their financials are offering more clarity than in the recent past. That's has some industry observers believing that the stars are aligning for deals to get done. For sellers, the dilemma is whether to take the modest multiples on offer or hold for more at the risk of missing out altogether.

The Department of Justice faces a serious challenge to its aggressive pursuit of fair lending cases following a Supreme Court decision to hear a case involving the controversial theory of "disparate impact." American Banker editors discuss the implications of the high-profile case for banks and the rest of the mortgage industry.