Policy & Regulation

The Federal Housing Finance Agency should further narrow the circumstances in which Fannie or Freddie can make a lender repurchase a loan. This would encourage lending and strengthen the recovery.

Regulators are pressuring banks to serve as deputies in their crackdown on online payday lenders. It's part of a broader push in which government authorities are holding bankers accountable for the activities of the third parties with which they do business. American Banker staffers discuss what’s at stake for the industry.

Now the pressure is on banks to develop creative new products and services and work harder to show their value.

Fannie Mae, the mortgage financier seized by U.S. regulators in 2008, will pay the Treasury Department $10.2 billion after reporting its sixth consecutive quarterly profit on continued recovery in the housing market.

A debt collector in Shavertown, Pa. faces a felony count mail fraud charge after federal prosecutors allege he collected more than $23,000 from a client before closing up shop without working to settle the client's debt.

Launched in April 2010, Think Computer Corp.'s FaceCash application signed up 25 Bay Area merchants and 500 consumers to use its novel technology, which combined mobile bar code scanning and photo identification. Then regulators put it out of business.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) said it's under federal criminal investigation for practices tied to sales of mortgage-backed bonds that the Justice Department has already concluded broke civil laws.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) said the Justice Department concluded the firm broke federal laws while handling mortgage-backed securities.

Kentucky First Federal Bancorp (KFFB) in Hazard has received regulatory approval to pay a 10-cent dividend to its public shareholders.

Pressure is mounting for bank regulators to dial back pending mortgage rules after President Obama said he's worried the housing market could become too constrained by "overlapping regulations."