Policy & Regulation

The Senate's approval of Richard Cordray's nomination to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau likely puts an end to another crucial fight over the bureau's structure and its ability to impose far-reaching regulations on the industry.

For the past two weeks, Visa, MasterCard and Discover have been meeting with each other and with regional debit networks to hammer out the business agreements necessary to route debit transactions on EMV-chip cards in the U.S.

A lawsuit against Credit Management Services, a Grand Island, Neb. collection agency, can continue as a class action that might include as many as 27,000 eligible Nebraskans, U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Bataillon has ruled.

The Senate's approval of Richard Cordray's nomination to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau does more than give the agency a permanent director: it also removes Republicans' biggest bargaining chip in their longstanding push to force key structural changes at the agency.

Herb Allison, who died Sunday, turned out to have far more in common with his critics than seemed possible during the heat of the financial crisis.

An encompassing denominator and full disclosure requirements should assuage concerns that Basel fails to go far enough to cushion banks for unexpected losses.

Other reforms are getting short shrift while federal regulators fascinate over the power of capital rules to reform the banking business.

Notwithstanding recent media criticism, there is little doubt that these products offer a better alternative for unbanked and underbanked consumers who would otherwise use a cash-based system to manage their finances.

Sen. Mike Crapo, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, asked the Government Accountability Office to shadow the Financial Stability Oversight Council's process for designating systemically important institutions.

On Tuesday the law firm Morrison & Foerster announced that it has hired Donald Lampe, who headed Dykema's financial services regulatory and compliance team, as a partner.