Policy & Regulation

A tip from a whistle-blower led regulators to crack down on Citizens Financial Group for ignoring discrepancies between customer deposit slips and the amount actually placed into the bank — and similar actions against other banks could be on their way.

FNBH Bancorp in Michigan has been unable to make an important move without its primary regulator's OK in the six years since its nonperforming assets hit double digits. It's an extreme example of the tension between past problems and future visions that freezes many banks.

The two subsidiaries of Citizens Financial Group will pay regulators a combined $35 million to settle charges they engaged in "unfair and deceptive" actions related to deposit processing.

Some community banks stick with rigid or outdated policies out of habit. That winds up hurting them when customers take their business to financial institutions that use technology to make transactions more convenient.

The longer the CFPB waits to implement tighter regulations for the payday lending industry, the more Americans will find themselves trapped in a cycle of unaffordable debt.

Tough new regulatory requirements for regional banks exceeding $50 billion in assets are costly, but much of that toll would remain even if Congress reformed the asset threshold, according to a provocative new paper.

The Payments U.K. council has delivered the first draft of the ISO 20022 payment messaging standard, fulfilling an earlier promise that it says will pave the way for a globally interoperable real-time payments system.

Regulators need to be able to impose tough requirements on foreign banks with U.S. units in order to safeguard the domestic financial system from turbulence abroad. Sen. Richard Shelby's proposal to raise the asset threshold for systemically important banks would put that ability in jeopardy.

Because the size and structure of current private balance sheets depend upon low interest rates, it will be tough for the Federal Reserve to raise rates without upsetting the economic expansion.

Ocwen Financial's internal review group is "independent," and the Atlanta servicer is in compliance with the national mortgage settlement, settlement monitor Joseph A. Smith said Tuesday.