Opinions

The debt collection industry is gearing up for a major shake-up as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau looks to revamp rules that will likely cover every player in the market, from first-person creditors down to the buyers of others' debts.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has created a database where borrowers can file complaints on payday loans.

Bank of America Corp. is negotiating with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to settle allegations it deceived customers in the sales of credit-card add-on products, according to two people briefed on the talks.

Alex J. Pollock, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, believes it is not too late to fix Dodd-Frank's credit ratings rule.

The agency has set up a database in which borrowers can file complaints about excessive fees, incorrect charges or other problems with payday loans, the CFPB announced Wednesday.

Bart Chilton, a U.S. regulator who pushed for tighter regulation of swaps and derivatives, said he will step down from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) is among firms facing federal scrutiny of mortgage-backed securities sales under a 1989 law that the government is using to extend probes of banks' roles in the credit crisis.

More than a quarter of House lawmakers are asking the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to delay implementation of its "qualified mortgage" rule, arguing that many smaller institutions are not going to be ready on time.

"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is considering new rules to govern debt collection practices that could for the first time include banks and other creditors that are collecting their own debt," writes American Banker's Rachel Witkowski.

A New Jersey town council may vote as early as today on a proposal to settle a U.S. Supreme Court case that has threatened to undercut the Obama administration's crackdown on lending discrimination.