Policy & Regulation

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including recommended reforms to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Ripple Labs' efforts to work toward a decentralized payments protocol.

Sen. Susan Collins successfully added a measure to an appropriations bill that would allow the FDIC, OCC and Fed to exempt banks with less than $10 billion of assets from regulations that they deem unnecessary or burdensome, which some observers said could have a big impact.

A Senate bill passed late Thursday provides additional funding but it also requires enhanced reporting on lending and credit quality from SBA. The measure is headed to the House.

The Justice Department is investigating whether Citigroup let customers move illicit cash through its Mexico unit, setting the bank's biggest international operation in the path of an expanding money-laundering probe.

The Ohio company has been giving customers longer grace periods to address overdraft charges. While it has seen service charges decline, the company has been adding customers and checking accounts.

American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. Comments are excerpted from reader response sections of AmericanBanker.com articles and from our social media platforms.

A Senate committee approved legislation Thursday that would offer some protection from federal authorities to banks and credit unions doing business with state-authorized marijuana merchants.

WASHINGTON — Student Financial Aid Services is facing more than $5.2 million in charges after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau alleged the company illegally signed up consumers for student financial assistance and proceeded to automatically bill them annually.

The debate about how big a bank needs to be before it poses a threat to the economy heated up again Thursday as lawmakers battled over the $50 billion threshold imposed by the Dodd-Frank Act.

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a bill designed to fund certain government agencies, but which also included a bill by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala, to provide regulatory relief for community banks.