Policy & Regulation

The Federal Reserve is proposing changes required by the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 to regulations governing its ability to extend emergency lending to struggling financial firms.

Parke Bancorp (PKBK) in Sewell, N.J., has raised roughly $20 million in a private placement.

WASHINGTON - PNC Financial has reached a $35 million settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Department of Justice over allegations that National City Bank - which PNC acquired in 2008 - made higher-priced mortgage loans to minorities.

When Tom Curry was first named as comptroller, there were some doubts about whether he was the right pick to address the industry's problems and the agency's battered reputation. Yet during the past year, Curry has reasserted the OCC's role in banking regulation and appears distinctly more comfortable in his role.

WASHINGTON — The American Bankers Association plans to challenge the Volcker Rule in court unless regulators immediately suspend portions of the controversial regulation that restrict certain collateralized debt obligations of trust-preferred securities.

Banks that want to expand via M&A will face a special challenge in 2014. The failed-bank market has quieted, but regulatory costs and other factors that are expected to drive open-bank M&A haven't coalesced quite yet, says bank M&A advisor Randy Dennis.

Ally Financial Inc., the auto lender majority owned by the U.S. government, won regulatory approval to change its holding-company status, allowing the firm to keep an insurance business and a vehicle-auction website.

The number of homes in foreclosure fell sharply in the third quarter as fewer and fewer borrowers fell behind on their mortgages, according to a report released Monday by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

The Volcker Rule may be finalized, but bankers still face many looming questions about the final shape of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and other pending financial regulations. American Banker editors discuss what to expect in 2014 from regulators including the Federal Reserve, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Before consigning millions of Americans to lives of perpetual tenancy, we need observers on all sides of the housing reform debate to put aside rhetoric and focus on market realities.