Policy & Regulation

It is only a matter of time before bankers and policymakers realize that the concept keeping banks and non-financial entities apart no longer has any underlying support.

A task force convened by the Federal Reserve released its evaluations last week of 16 proposals to build a faster U.S. payment system. What follows is a brief look at some of the plans that received high marks.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is likely to finalize its small-dollar rule by September ahead of Director Richard Cordray's widely expected departure.

He is, by Wall Street standards, a small-time banker. But in 2014, with Donald Trump eyeing a run at the White House, Stephen Calk stepped into the big-money world of New York real estate — and a network of Trump associates.

Regulators need a principles-based approach that seeks to position boards as watchtowers for their banks while not subjecting directors to overly burdensome restrictions.

Citigroup hopes to return $60 billion to shareholders by 2020 while earning $20 billion a year; SEC says companies that raise money by selling their own electronic tokens for cryptocurrencies may be subject to federal oversight.

Fed Vice Chair-nominee Randal Quarles will likely face questions about his support for small banks, while Comptroller-nominee Joseph Otting must face fallout from his predecessor.

The House voted 231 to 190 on Tuesday to nullify the CFPB's rule banning mandatory arbitration clauses, but the outcome in Senate is unclear.

Social Finance’s application for an industrial loan charter has not only drawn opposition from a coalition of incumbent banks and community activists, it also serves as a microcosm of several perennial debates in financial services policy.

Policymakers should differentiate between housing finance-related issues of real importance to the greater public interest, and those that concern only special interests.