Regulation

BROCKTON, Mass. — HarborOne CU, New England's second largest credit union, is the latest credit union giant to be considering a conversion to bank, which would be the biggest credit union conversion yet.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a proposal Thursday that would allow the agency to supervise debt collectors and credit reporting agencies, two industries that have had an increasingly important impact on consumers during the recession.

Discover Financial Services, which is facing a government probe over its marketing of credit card insurance-like products, believes its relatively new practices will appease regulators, a top executive said on Thursday.

Perversely, the proposed compliance framework presumes that a banking entity has violated the Volcker Rule unless the entity can prove otherwise.

Large debt collection and credit reporting firms would face federal supervision for the first time under a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposal issued Thursday.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and FDIC Chairman Marty Gruenberg said regulators are seeking to keep community banks vibrant.

Fannie Mae is considering Timothy Mayopoulos, the head of a banking industry trade group and its own general counsel, as possible replacements for departing Chief Executive Michael Williams, according to The Wall Street Journal.

A small restaurant in Park City, Utah, figures to play a big role in determining how card networks prove suspected card data security breaches and whether card processors rightfully can deduct funds from merchant accounts–without telling the merchants–to cover their own network fines for breaches allegedly stemming from a client failing to comply with Payment Card Industry data-security standards.

After a slow start to the year for consumer statute litigation - specifically the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act - all three categories jumped in the second half of January, according to data from U.S. District Courts.

The Center for Responsible Lending was one of 15 organizations on Thursday to receive a MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions.