Policy & Regulation

House Republicans warned Wednesday that bank examiners are going to continue to pursue small institutions as part of a government crackdown on certain merchants such as payday lenders, pawn shops and gun dealers.

Although time is running out for the Senate to take up pending cybersecurity legislation before the end of the year, key lawmakers said they are still hopeful it could be enacted soon in the wake of several prominent breaches.

New regulatory and investor compliance requirements have put a renewed emphasis on quality control measures. But lenders are discovering the additional costs of these efforts are outweighed by the savings from originating fewer defective loans.

The draft released by the top Financial Services Committee Democrat would remove adverse information from credit reports and require consumer data furnishers to retain records.

A federal judge has dismissed an attempt by the New York Bankers Association to block a New York City law requiring an evaluation of community investments made by banks holding the city's deposits.

Real estate investment trusts don't pose the credit risk to the Federal Home Loan Bank System that regulators claim they do, said the CEO of Two Harbors Investment Corp.

Members of the Senate Banking Committee pressed top regulators on a host of issues, including plans to raise capital standards on the biggest banks and potential changes to a new liquidity rule.

The Federal Housing Administration wants lenders to make fewer mistakes when writing mortgages for the government insurance program. The agency also wants to serve more borrowers with low credit scores. Getting both may be tricky.

A lack of formal training programs and insufficient financial and career incentives limit the availability of skilled risk managers.

The best way to prevent the repo market from freezing up in a future crisis is to require broker-dealers to use Treasury securities as collateral.