Policy & Regulation

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have launched "Money Smart for Older Adults" with tips on preventing identity theft and other common scams and how to prepare financially for life events.

Law professor Saule T. Omarova is suggesting regulators require pre-market approval for complex financial instruments like derivatives to curb systemic risk in global markets. How effective would such a program be?

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Martin Gruenberg signs memorandum of understanding with Canadian counterpart expressing the two agencies' "willingness to cooperate with each other" in resolutions of cross-border institutions.

Banks and insurers are expected to make the case at closed-door hearings being held later this week by the Federal Housing Finance Agency that forced-placed homeowner's policies should remain the purview of state regulators. The discussions are part of a broader debate over how to reform the force-placed insurance market. The controversy revolves around claims by consumer advocates, state regulators and others that banks and insurers have colluded to drive up the cost of such coverage, which is "force-placed" on often struggling homeowners who allow their standard hazard policies to lapse.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said Wednesday it would give the seven largest national banks more time to push out their swap activities as required by the Dodd-Frank Act.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released a report in which it found widespread misuse of overdraft fees among banks. Agency acting director Richard Cordray warned of potential harm to consumers and indicated that action is likely. American Banker editors discuss what the CFPB found how it's likely to respond in a market worth $32 billion in revenues to the banking industry.

The Fed’s research raises more questions than it answers, among them: Is the researcher right when he says the great bankers he interviewed could run a bank successfully anywhere, anytime?

Companies that purchase delinquent accounts secured an estimated $230 million in default judgments against New Yorkers in 2011, according to a report from the New Economy Project, but failed to prove they owned the debt in a majority of cases.

Capital rules, long considered the backbone of a safe and sound banking system, are evolving to meet other policy goals, like forcing the largest banks to get smaller.

Banks are incessantly lobbying the CFTC to hold off on cross-border derivatives rules until other countries write their own regulations. But that could take longer than the next crisis.