Regulation

West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw's office has made agreements with five out-of-state debt collection companies that were unlawfully working in the state. The companies agreed to pay a total of $772,286 in the form of refunds and debt forgiveness.

Directors and officers of banks, already under scrutiny from the regulators and law enforcement agencies traditionally charged with examining their actions, should take heed of a new player on the scene: the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. SIGTARP has already been involved in a number of significant financial institution investigations and appears poised to increase the scope of its activity.

If ratified by the Fed, the new liquidity ratios could constrain lending, at the worst possible time. A proposed capital buffer is theoretically countercyclical, but needs more work.

BancorpSouth quietly cut a deal in Arkansas that could undercut Florida claims in the overdraft case and save it millions. A federal judge is not amused.

Newly installed Comptroller Tom Curry faced a barrage of criticism over how JPMorgan lost more than $2 billion from trades in London and why regulators were not more aware of the severity of the threat.

House Democrats on Wednesday took aim at a controversial bill that would establish a self-regulatory organization to oversee retail investment advisers, raising a litany of concerns about the impact on small investment practices and diminishing the roles of existing federal and state authorities.

Businesses went knocking on banks' doors to ask for more loans over the past few months, boosting optimism that demand would continue to rise in the coming year, according to a Federal Reserve Board report released Wednesday.

Ignoring state appraisal laws may subject bank employees or third-party service providers to fines or even criminal penalties. National banks relying on federal preemption for appraisal laws should take another look at that assumption in light of Dodd-Frank.

The System Risk Council, which will be advised by Paul Volcker, will provide outside commentary on the progress of overhauling the regulatory system.

Here's a systemic risk bankers and regulators prefer not to discuss: Banks so big they get away with chronically unethical and illegal behavior.