Regulation

I was at a summit with 300 other community bankers when we were startled by chants of "Make Banks Pay!" Occupy Wall Street and related groups see no solutions coming out of Washington they are attacking bankers as public enemy #1.

You wouldn't automatically expect a Tea Party darling to express sympathy for the Occupy Wall Street protestors, but that is what Ron Paul did Wednesday.

At a hearing Thursday, Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., grilled Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on when the administration will release a GSE reform plan that is more detailed than its April white paper, which provided a rough sketch of three different options.

David Nebhut has been named deputy comptroller for economic and policy analysis at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

As agencies face the daunting task of finalizing their much-criticized rule, there is growing speculation that regulators will need to re-propose their proposal.

Regulators' consent orders let mortgage servicers select the firms to review their actions. Allowing the banks to choose their own judge, jury, and jailer presents almost untenable conflicts of interest.

Early reviews of the draft plan implementing the proprietary trading ban and hedge fund investment limits have industry representatives concerned it is too long and complicated.

If the industry works seriously with the reasonable critics of its fee practices — the ones who stress disclosure — it can safely ignore the rabble-rousers.

Fearing that banks might get off too easy in the multi-state mortgage settlement talks, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is preparing to file lawsuits against the nation's largest servicers for wrongfully foreclosing on customers.

WASHINGTON–President Obama sharply criticized the financial sector Oct. 5 in response to questions about the Occupy Wall Street movement, the small number of prosecutions related to the financial crisis, and his recent comments about Bank of America's plan to impose a fee on debit-card users.