Regulation

Safety-and-soundness orders continued to abate late last year in another sign that the banking industry is regaining its balance.

Two top Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee said the CFPB should stop the collection of privileged information from banks until Congress can clarify how that information is protected.

Community banks on average seem to be losing less revenue from a lower interchange cap that first forecast. Observers caution that those banks can't get too comfortable since market forces have yet to change the landscape.

Instead of focusing on its traditional arguments that the CFPB is unaccountable, Republicans instead focused on new rules and regulations from the agency, saying it is ignoring public comments and enacting its own agenda.

WASHINGTON — The banking regulators reissued guidance on Tuesday that requires institutions to monitor all credit quality indicators for mortgage borrowers, specifically citing junior liens as a potential problem.

The Federal Reserve on Tuesday announced two enforcement actions against two banks, the Bank of Bartlett in Tennessee and Capitol City Bancshares Inc. in Atlanta.

The president has assembled a new group of state and federal law enforcers to right mortgage wrongs, but observers doubt it will leave much of a mark.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. alerted its banks Tuesday of heightened risks from working with payment processors.

Citigroup came under political fire Monday for reporting frequent flier miles as taxable income in certain circumstances. But Sen. Sherrod Brown, who blasted Citi, had to back away from the criticism after the IRS came to the aid of the banking company.

In the Federal Reserve's latest senior loan officer opinion survey, most U.S. firms said they expect improvements in asset quality in the coming year, but were less optimistic than last year.