Opinions

The U.S. government and 49 states filed a $25 billion settlement of alleged foreclosure abuses in federal court on Monday, capping a year of negotiations with five major banks after public outrage erupted in fall 2010 over revelations that banks cut corners when processing foreclosures.

The Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform bill included a provision creating Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion in all 20 federal agencies that regulate our financial system.

U.S. Bancorp has created a separate in-house appraisal unit overseen by a senior risk officer, breaking from the way most banks handle appraisals of residential properties.

Federal Reserve Banks around the country last week took a moment to point out progress made by women in the field of economics and earlier works by female economists to commentate the 101st anniversary of International Women's Day.

Like the nuclear meltdown that devastated Japan a year ago, America's financial crisis resulted in part from collusion between the regulators in the capital and the regulated in the executive suites. Unlike the Japanese, we didn't learn from our calamity.

Longtime community bank investor Eric Hovde has traded Washington D.C. for Wisconsin in the hopes of taking up residence in the nation's capitol.

For a second time in three weeks, regulators have shuttered a bank that others were unwilling to acquire.

The Federal Reserve Board is scheduled to release results this week of the toughest stress tests to date. They will determine what firms can pay a dividend and shape public perceptions of banks' health.

Many financial product innovations sound brilliant, but are prone to blow up after 5 or 15 years of increasing emulation and bloat, as discipline declines. Then, after the horses are long gone, Washington thinks about painting the barn. Some of that happened with inventive mortgages and their securitization, with collateral default swaps, with overinvestment in commercial real estate, and — some would allege — with money market funds.

WASHINGTON — The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has approved Capital One Financial Corp.'s acquisition of HSBC Bank USA's credit card portfolio.