Policy & Regulation

Stubborn regulators. Delays and cancellations. Unpredictable shareholders. Those are just some of the stomach-churning obstacles that have made guts and a bit of luck key ingredients in successful bank dealmaking.

Some bankers are still in denial over how much their industry is disliked and mistrusted, even in the postcrisis, post-Occupy Wall Street era. A panel discussion with Raj Date, Eliot Spitzer and Robert Wolf highlighted how much work remains to be done.

The banking industry backs a controversial cybersecurity bill, saying it would give them timely information needed to fend off cyberattacksm, while civil liberties groups charge the bill lacks safeguards to protect people's privacy.

The Federal Reserve Board said Wednesday that the independent consultant overseeing payments to millions of consumers as part of its mortgage settlement had fixed problems that had caused troubled borrowers' checks to bounce.

Congress can certainly help, but regulators must recognize that they have a structural oversight problem and need to develop remedies on their own.

The House of Representatives on Wednesday is expected to pass controversial legislation that aims to deter cyberattacks.

Raj Date, the former deputy director for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has started a bank advisory firm that will focus on consumer finance issues, including assisting mergers and acquisitions through private equity partnerships.

Poorly written regulations from the Department of Housing and Urban Development are at the crux of a force-placed insurance fight between lenders and homeowners, federal judges declared at a hearing earlier this month.

Scott Alvarez, the Federal Reserve Board's general counsel, told lawmakers that the Fed's use of special Dodd-Frank powers to take apart banks that are a "grave threat" to the economy would likely depend on the circumstances of each situation.

Community bankers sounded more warnings about the Dodd-Frank reform law and proposed Basel III requirements on Tuesday, including how new rules will impact the housing market.