Opinions

A quick look at policies, fee revenues and agency budgets in the administration's 2013 proposal - and how it all affects banks.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has withdrawn a proposed rule that would have allowed government-backed Farm Credit System lenders to make more home loans.

President Obama announced Monday a doubling of a proposed tax on big banks to $61 billion. For the White House, the political appeal is obvious but the proposal itself appears highly unlikely to ever become law.

A U.S. district court has banned a mortgage-relief business that operated a scheme causing consumer losses of nearly $19 million from doing further business.

Rather than wait for government or plaintiff lawyers to find them, banks that were involved in the syndication of mortgage backed securities should control their exposure through a proactive, rigorous self-study program.

Many small banks have never accepted that an exemption from the Durbin amendment will protect them from the measure's roughly 50% cut in debit interchange rates.

Senior Fed officials met Monday in a closed session on Capital One Financial Corp.'s pending acquisition of the U.S. online banking unit of ING Group but did not make a decision. It had delayed a meeting on the deal last week.

The premium increase, expected to be announced in the next week, is one of a series of steps the FHA is taking to avoid a taxpayer bailout.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has requested $448 million from the Federal Reserve in 2013, according to the president's budget proposal, which also outlines the fees that regulators expect to collect from banks this year and would provide significant increases for the CFTC.

The mortgage settlement was a political coup for President Obama and state attorneys general. For banks, it was merely the latest turn in a long and winding effort to put housing problems behind them.