Regulation

The release of the Federal Reserve’s new debit interchange rules is merely the latest in a series of unprecedented legal, economic and technological events that have buffeted the financial-services industry over the last three years. In many financial experts’ minds, the new rules have raised as many questions as they have settled.

Two reports by the Federal Housing Finance Agency's Inspector General are critical of the agency for the lack of accredited examiners and its failure to force Fannie Mae to create an oversight program.

A bill seeking to modernize the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), a critical push for the collection industry, was introduced in the House of Representatives on Thursday.

Dodd-Frank will prove hugely expensive and still fail in its main mission of preventing the next financial crisis. Blame Washington and its flawed assumption that it can micro-manage the banking system.

Regulators have longed encouraged banks to make small-dollar loans to people who otherwise lack access to credit. But testimony before Congress makes clear that their efforts are faltering.

Sen. Richard Shelby, the Alabama Republican, wants to require a deeper analysis of costs and benefits before financial regulations can be imposed.

Credit card company Discover Financial Services has been a frequent buyer in the past year as it tries to expand beyond its traditional card lending and network roots. But now it is developing new businesses internally, including a new online checking account it plans to launch at the end of 2012.

Revised lending data released Thursday by the Federal Reserve Board showed a much bigger role for the government-sponsored enterprises than previously estimated.

Some of the biggest players in banking's mortgage-finance assembly line — including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Credit Suisse Group — are asking a federal judge to dismiss a nearly $2 billion civil fraud lawsuit filed by the trustee of a defunct mortgage lender.

International Bancshares Corp. is closing 55 grocery-store branches in response to a new Federal Reserve rule that will cap what many banks can charge merchants for debit card transactions, the Laredo, Texas-based bank announced Sept. 22.