Regulation

As much as David Fiderer and others try to defend the GSEs and the policies that drove them into insolvency, the taxpayers who bailed them out are unlikely to be fooled.

The Federal Trade Commission announced Tuesday plans to ban the use of four payment methods favored by con artists and scammers.

Now that shareholders have agreed to let Jamie Dimon keep both his jobs at JPMorgan Chase, the chairman and chief executive must resolve several pressing issues. Among them: succession, board composition and mounting regulatory scrutiny.

Lawmakers blasted senior officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday, arguing they were too rigid with recently finalized mortgage rules that could choke off access to credit.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Starbucks Corp. are among 19 retailers opting out of a $7.25 billion antitrust settlement with Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. over fees charged to merchants to process credit-card transactions.

A public rift is emerging among some of the Democratic attorneys general who forged the 49-state mortgage settlement with five major banks over how aggressively to enforce servicing standards.

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Tuesday that lawmakers should hold off on further legislative reforms to the financial system until Dodd-Frank is fully implemented, echoing recent remarks from top Federal Reserve Board officials and large bank executives.

Until a mechanism to shut the biggest and baddest is well in place, the prospect of taxpayer bailout will distort financial markets and handicap competitors.

The Fed on May 15 lifted a 2009 written agreement that barred the $326 million-asset Tysan from taking on debt or repurchasing stock without regulatory approval.

The Oregon Senate has passed a bill banning private collection companies from using official government letterhead - namely that of district attorneys - to threaten bad check writers with jail.