Regulation

The banking unit of Pinnacle Financial Partners (PNFP) in Nashville, Tenn., has filed an application to convert from a national charter to a state one to "simplify communications with regulatory authorities."

First Horizon National (FHN) in Memphis said Monday that it will take a $272 million charge in the second quarter primarily for mortgage repurchases from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision is currently entertaining tougher capital rules for certain types of construction and commercial real estate loans. If the rules go through, they could ice small banks' plans for returning to profit growth.

Foreign banks are sending letters to U.S. residents who have accounts, requiring that these customers waive secrecy rights and pressuring them to report on the accounts to the IRS.

Thousands of pages will soon arrive in Washington in the first round of living wills for systemically important firms. Many observers say these initial drafts could shape future standards and determine the wills' effectiveness in ending "too big to fail."

The Treasury Department is auctioning off shares it owns in seven more community banks still left in the Troubled Asset Relief Program and at least five of the banks intend to bid on all or some of the shares themselves.

We'll know that the banking industry has returned to full health when we see a significant number of new charters. We're not there yet.

Christopher Dodd recently spoke in defense of the act with his name his name on it at a conference for accounting fraud examiners. Following the event the former senator discussed the compromises and concessions that were necessary to pass the bill, and everything he would have included given his druthers, in an interview with Accounting Today.

Looking back on last summer provides some perspective. What's worse: a $2 billion nick to one bank's profits, or a massive computational error leading to the unprecedented downgrade of the world's most powerful economic force?

Supporters of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are dismissing a new lawsuit that seeks to abolish the agency as a political stunt, and even bank industry insiders who would like the case to succeed are privately calling it an uphill battle. But it may still have an impact on the CFPB's operations in a more indirect way.