Policy & Regulation

The FDIC is holding an auction for jewelry it inherited from the failed Tennessee Commerce Bank. The bank picked up the baubles after a jewelry store defaulted.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency moved Thursday to restrict home builders from imposing a controversial fee on property transactions that critics call unfair to home buyers.

Senate Democrats plan to introduce to an amendment to a new jobs bill that would extend the charter of the Export-Import Bank for another four years and raise the bank's lending limit by 40%, to $140 billion.

Last year, for the first time in anyone's recollection, there were no new bank charters approved, with the exception of three specifically blessed to acquire failed banks.

A trade group representing bank boards says directors have become "overwhelmed" by rules and regulations and is urging banking agencies and Congress to quickly take steps to ease their burden.

The fight over the Durbin Amendment continues, as financial institutions take issue with a lawsuit that retailers filed late last year against the Fed.

The Treasury Department in 2010 took a massive haircut on its investment in Pacific Capital and now stands to make roughly 90 cents on the dollar from the bank's sale to UnionBanCal. It's a reminder that taking your lumps early on problem assets can be beneficial.

Congress should repeal Sarbanes-Oxley to increase the flow of equity capital to micro- and small-cap public companies. Lawmakers also must increase the allotment for the SBA 7(a) program and guarantee it exists for the next three years.

Banks have made considerable progress fortifying their financials recently. But the Fed's latest stress test results show laggards remain and left some questioning the value of the entire exercise.

Various organizations representing card issuers joined a broad coalition of card issuers March 15 in a brief opposing a lawsuit filed by merchants claiming the Federal Reserve did not go far enough in capping fees on debit transactions last year.