Policy & Regulation

The Volcker rule included in the Dodd-Frank Act was intended to eliminate "proprietary trading" at universal banks. This was largely motivated by the massive losses incurred by the proprietary trading desks of Wall Street investment firms that securitized mortgages. In the rush to mitigate systemic risk in the wake of the subprime lending debacle, banking charters and the Fed's protective umbrella were extended to the remaining investment banks. The thinking was that trading is risky, and hence not appropriate for insured banks, but establishing rules to prevent trading at universal banks was never going to be easy.

I'm hoping William Dudley would consider a meander down the street to Zuccotti Park, with the Fed's consent order against Goldman Sachs in hand. Let the crowd know that the Fed not only shares your pain, but has a few analgesics that might make you feel a bit better.

Ocwen Financial Corp., which this week agreed to buy Morgan Stanley's Saxon Mortgage Services Inc., isn't planning on stopping its shopping spree anytime soon.

Both the chief executive officer and the chairman of the board of Freddie Mac are stepping down within the next few months, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said Wednesday.

As hundreds of national banks disappear and community banks increasingly chose a state charter, policymakers must consider the impacts.

The Obama Administration, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Department of Education, unveiled initiatives this week aimed at bringing transparency to the student lending market and making repayment easier for recent college graduates.

A top political prognosticator said the Occupy Wall Street crowd has a long way to go before they evolve into a political movement on par with the Tea Party.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has ordered West Coast Bank in Lake Oswego, Ore., to improve oversight of its overdraft program and reimburse customers who incurred overdraft fees last year using their debit or ATM cards.

First Midwest Bancorp Inc. in Itasca, Ill., said Wednesday that it had received approval from the Treasury Department to redeem $193 million in preferred stock issued in December 2008 under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The bureau has teamed up with the Department of Education on a financial aid shopping sheet that would help students compare offers from different schools, distinguish between scholarships and loans, and estimate their monthly debt payments after graduation.