Policy & Regulation

Senate lawmakers held a hearing Wednesday to urge regulators to clamp down on a debt collection industry criticized for poor documentation practices and conflicts of interest.

With mortgage rates climbing in recent weeks homeowners have switched from feverishly pursuing refinancing to buying new homes, a Federal Reserve Board report said Wednesday.

After the Senate's confirmation of Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren applauded the decision at an event celebrating the bureau's second anniversary.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers that a future housing finance reform plan should provide clarity to the private sector about the level of support the government provides to the market.

The new leverage ratio is a relatively modest proposal that can be easily addressed by the affected banks without material capital raises or changes in distribution policy.

The Senate's confirmation of Richard Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ends a long period of uncertainty for the new agency – and for the banks that it regulates. It also effectively ends efforts by Republicans and the industry to change the structure of the CFPB.

Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Mark Warner, D-Va., emphasized the bipartisan compromises the two have made in crafting their proposed overhaul of the mortgage finance system.

The Senate's approval of Richard Cordray's nomination to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is likely to end the Republicans' push for a change to the bureau's structure.

Banks and payment card providers would face caps on the transaction fees they can demand from retailers under European Union plans to rein in charges that have been attacked by regulators as anticompetitive.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, architect and founder of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, says agency is "the law of the land, and … here to stay."