Regulation

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP announced last week that Dwight Smith, a former attorney with the now-closed Office of Thrift Supervision, was joined the firm's Washington office as a partner.

Ronald F. Bieker, a 25-year veteran of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., has joined the banking and financial advisory team of SolomonEdwards as a senior executive advisor.

Viewed through the framework provided by the economist Nassim Taleb, a centrally directed financial system with uniform risk management and prescribed products is fragile.

The Federal Trade Commission is refunding more than $107,000 to Spanish-speaking consumers who lost money to Dinamica Financiera LLC, a company that sold bogus mortgage loan modifications or foreclosure relief services.

WASHINGTON — State regulators in Arizona closed the $45 million-asset Gold Canyon Bank late Friday, the fifth bank failure this year.

A former executive at the defunct Appalachian Community Bank in Ellijay, Ga., was sentenced to prison Friday for running a fraudulent loan scheme.

The Fed, FDIC and OCC have so far given no indication of developing a public complaint database like the one managed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but that could soon change.

A draft bill by Sens. David Vitter, R-La., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, would scrap pending Basel III requirements and instead impose a higher capital standard: 10% for all banks and an additional surcharge of 5% for institutions with more than $400 billion of assets.

Bank of America Corp.'s $2.4 billion settlement with investors who lost money as a result of the bank's acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. was approved by a federal judge.

Regulators have lifted an enforcement action against a unit of First Financial Northwest (FFNW) in Renton, Wash.