Regulation

A new survey shows that bankers are surprisingly satisfied with their institutions' examiners and exams.

Frivolously adding armor to combat planes makes the aircraft difficult to control and less effective. Weighting down banks with ill-conceived risk mitigation strategies and regulations serves the interests of neither individual banks nor the banking system as a whole.

President and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati David Hehman announced plans to retire in June. Andrew Howell, executive vice president and chief operating officer, will take his place.

A Chief Risk Officer can now have significant stature and sway. But that new prominence gives shareholders, regulators, and the media an easy target for ridicule after a corporate stumble.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau revealed details Thursday about how it plans to examine payday lenders, while Director Richard Cordray said it will move immediately to stop certain practices.

Robert Menendez and three House Democrats are asking the Government Accountability Office to assess whether there are conflicts of interest between banks and the third-party auditors that are reviewing their foreclosure practices.

Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown is urging federal and state officials not to reach a settlement that allows banks to pass the costs on to investors in mortgage-backed securties.

Glacier Bancorp Inc. in Kalispell, Mont., is planning to collapse its 11 bank subsidiaries into a single commercial bank in a move aimed at streamlining its operations and lowering its overall compliance costs.

A California man pleaded guilty to federal charges of money laundering, mail and wire fraud in connection with a collection agency scam he ran in the state that bilked $2.7 million from customers of clients.

Here we go again. A series of uncoordinated government policies are once more setting up the U.S. banking system for major losses and possibly another financial crisis.