Resources

President Obama unveiled a new home refinancing plan during his State of the Union address. So far it is short on details and looks destined to fare no better than its predecessors.

A new services-oriented architecture standard for banks could help them ease integration projects and save money. We talk to Hans Tesselaar, Executive Director of the Banking Industry Architecture Network, and Gartner analysts Mary Knox and Don Free about the SOA standard and what it could accomplish.

The president has assembled a new group of state and federal law enforcers to right mortgage wrongs, but observers doubt it will leave much of a mark.

Banks are pulling a page out of the past and expanding personal installment lending — in part to avoid the regulatory burdens in other markets.

Banks begin turning to Facebook and other sites to size up customers. Regulations require that they proceed with caution.

The FDIC has proposed rules surrounding its stress tests, but with rounds of negotiation with other agencies to come, it's unclear exactly what will govern the companies under its aegis. Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Joe Adler discusses how the agency will reconcile its stress tests with those of other regulators covering banks with $10 billion or more in assets.

Mission Capital's David Tobin is on, well, a mission. Distressed debt backed by commercial real estate is thriving, and banks should be selling their holdings.

Financial firms have plenty of grips about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau but appear to be withholding legal challenges until the new agency takes specific actions they find objectionable.

Trepp LLC's Matthew Anderson on the disadvantages giant banks face and why midsize banks will survive.

The former Tarp special inspector general says the Obama administration has let fears of a political backlash waylay programs that designed to aid the mortgage market and homeowners.