Opinions

Frustrated by the lack of new banking charters, two banking trade groups are urging the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to relax restrictions on startup institutions.

In the end, we will once again have a system that looks suspiciously like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac redux, with a housing bubble, a mortgage meltdown and a financial crisis.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is a rare government agency that funds private enforcement of its own regulations. It does so via its Fair Housing Initiatives Program, which offers grants to nonprofits to carry out the work.

The National Fair Housing Alliance's claims that banks have failed to maintain homes in minority neighborhoods are based on shaky factual and legal ground. However, alliances between the nonprofit and its allies in government may leave bankers with little choice but to settle.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s history, structure and effectiveness during the financial crisis have helped guide the discussion of housing finance reform, inspiring Senate lawmakers to push an FDIC-like system for the mortgage industry.

Banking regulators appeared on course Tuesday to vote on a final rule to ban proprietary trading at U.S. financial institutions ahead of a year-end deadline.

Former Washington Mutual Chief Executive Officer Kerry Killinger and two other bank officials are in settlement talks with the OCC, the last chapter in the government's probe of the largest U.S. bank failure.

Most systemically important financial institutions are publicly traded, so they’d have to immediately disclose any orders from the Fed to curb systemic risk. Their securities would get hammered. Thus, Fed supervision is a strong incentive to operate safely.

Carolina Premier Bank in Charlotte, N.C., is planning to swap its state charter for a national bank charter and change its name.

The Federal Reserve Board has lifted enforcement actions against Parkway Bancorp in Harwood Heights, Ill., and Peoples Inc. in Lawrence, Kan.