Regulation

The Treasury Department plans to auction its holdings in seven banks, including Flagstar Bancorp (FBC), as it continues to unwind the Troubled Asset Relief Program holdings.

The Federal Reserve board disclosed the initial round of results required under the Dodd-Frank law on the portfolios of the 18 largest bank holding companies.

"Attorney General Eric Holder's stunning admission that it was difficult to prosecute large banks because of the potential economic impact may be a turning point of the drive to break them up," writes American Banker's Rob Blackwell and Victoria Finkle.

Mouths dropped when Attorney General Eric Holder openly admitted that the government fears prosecuting big banks would harm the economy. But what about going after individual bankers for fraud? Does the Department of Justice really lack incriminating evidence — or just political will?

Cascade Bancorp (CACB), the holding company for the $1.3 billion-asset bank, said Thursday that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Oregon Division of Finance and Corporate Securities have terminated an August 2009 cease-and-desist order with the bank.

Banks have convinced policymakers, regulators and sometimes the courts that new regulations might be too expensive. However, the point of public intervention is to induce banks to take account of costs they impose on others.

BIPS’ strategy: Make it easy for merchants to get started with Bitcoin, aggregate their balances with the company, and make money over time on foreign exchange conversion and premium services.

The move to align the Southwest Airlines and AirTran frequent flier credit cards under the same issuing bank is just one stop in the route toward the eventual merger of the two carriers' affinity programs.

Despite companies' strong performance in the Federal Reserve capital simulations mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act, stress tests for the largest banks have really only just begun.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) has asked the Federal Reserve to authorize a $1.2 billion share buyback program this year, in a bid to prove it has recovered from the financial crisis and improved its operations in the past year.