Regulation

Although the Federal Reserve Board ultimately signed off on Capital One Financial Corp.'s deal to buy ING Direct USA, the grueling 9-month long process to get there is a warning to other large would-be acquirers.

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Merchant litigation over credit card interchange seems increasingly likely to end in a settlement, leaving observers at a payments conference this week to speculate about its final impact.

The shutdown of BitCoin's TradeHill, which exchanged digital currency for dollars and euros, underscores the regulatory and legal obstacles facing would-be disruptors in the payments business. Facebook is proceeding cautiously.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has entered into an agreement with American National Bank in Oakland Park, Fla., after finding "unsafe or unsound banking practices relating to credit risk."

Six of the 10 House Ethics Committee members have recused themselves from a probe into whether Rep. Maxine Waters helped secure government assistance for a bank in which her husband owned shares.

The prospect for principal reductions as a mortgage modification alternative has never looked as promising as it has with a number of important housing announcements over the last few weeks. The Federal Reserve's housing white paper, for instance, highlighted the need for more attention on principal reduction modifications, and it was featured again in the president's housing plan.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's plan to begin supervising debt collectors and credit reporting firms could prove troublesome to banks.

A bailout-era program that offers unlimited deposit insurance on business transaction accounts is set to expire at the end of this year. Some argue that the Transaction Account Guarantee Program has run its course, but many community bankers fear that if it is eliminated large depositors will move their money to megabanks seen as too big to fail.

Nothing grabs the attention of the business community like the arrival of a new regulator on the beat. So naturally collection agencies and debt buyers want to know all they can about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).