Regulation

WASHINGTON -- Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Narayana Kocherlakota will become the next chair of the Financial Services Policy Committee starting on March 17.

Regulators continue to make Bank Secrecy Act compliance one of their top priorities, according to newly available information on enforcement actions.

What is different postcrisis is that the actions of a minority of bankers have saddled the finance sector with a greedy, ethics-challenged image that may hinder recruiting the best and brightest talent.

Federal regulators are shining an increasingly harsh light on the debt collections practices of banks and third-party agencies, forcing many to drastically alter the ways in which they interact with delinquent consumers. American Banker outlines the changes underway and how they may trickle down to collections efforts around the nation.

Mary Miller, the acting Deputy Treasury Secretary, said regulators should coordinate and consistently apply tougher rules on financial institutions as they implement post-crisis reforms.

The GSEs reported big profits for 2013 but even the companies' executives question the sustainability of those earnings.

Bruce Berkowitz, the money manager battling the U.S. government over the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is calling on the boards of the mortgage-finance giants to build capital instead of turning over their profits to the Treasury now that they've returned to profitability.

Citigroup Inc. (C), the third-biggest U.S. bank, said its Banamex USA unit received grand jury subpoenas related to compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and federal anti-money-laundering requirements.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is getting serious about getting to know its customers.

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. received a subpoena regarding the return rate for its payment-processor clients from the U.S. Department of Justice and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.