Opinions

Banks got some regulatory relief in 2013 as federal regulators sharply curtailed their issuance of new enforcement actions.

Federal banking regulators are exploring whether to exempt collateralized debt obligations backed by trust-preferred securities from the Volcker Rule, the agencies said on Friday.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week.

The Federal Reserve Board is due in 2014 to unveil an initial plan to clamp down on risks tied to financial institutions' reliance on short-term wholesale funding.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued a prompt corrective action against AztecAmerica Bank in Berwyn, Ill., in November and hit two other banks with consent orders.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a warning on the risks of virtual currencies, and the country's largest Bitcoin trading platform has shut down.

WashingtonFirst Bankshares (WFBI) in Reston, Va., is the latest lender to divest securities on concerns about the Volcker Rule's controversial ban on collateralized debt obligations.

A recurring theme for Federal Reserve Banks in 2013 had a familiar - and highly complicated - ring to it for the payments industry. The Fed banks want faster payments in the U.S., but the larger retail banks want to preserve their investments in earlier technology.

Banking regulators have until Monday to respond to a lawsuit filed by the American Bankers Association over the Volcker Rule.

Bankers have almost become used to the intense growth of new rules in the five years since the financial crisis, but some see a light at the end of the tunnel as the agencies inch toward the end of Dodd-Frank rulemakings and the economy improves.