Regulation

As the FDIC files more lawsuits against former directors of failed banks, a common theme has emerged from the defendants’ legal arguments: the FDIC is to blame for the failures. Industry observers are divided as to whether the defense will hold water in court.

Major U.S. banks plan to launch a common website, toll-free phone number and advertising campaign in the coming weeks to solicit complaints from consumers harmed by problems in foreclosure processing, a top regulator said Monday.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are gradually increasing the guarantee fees they collect from lenders, and may discontinue the volume discounts they give large banks, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Ed DeMarco said on Monday.

The White House proposed Monday to "modestly" increase the fees that mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge mortgage lenders as a way to reduce the U.S. mortgage system's dependence on government support.

Denying the application would ice large banks, spook foreign owners and deprive the central bank of a key consolidation tool.

Regulators, mortgage insurers, and plaintiffs' attorneys all failed to stop a decade-long pay-to-play scheme in captive mortgage reinsurance alleged by HUD's inspector general. But the short-term profits the deals produced may have cost banks a great deal in the long run.

Life insurance agents are concerned about a proposed change emanating from Dodd-Frank.

On September 12 the U.K.'s Independent Commission on Banking released its much-anticipated final report, also known as the "Vickers report" after chairman Sir John Vickers.

The government faces significant obstacles in enacting a plan to turn government-controlled foreclosure properties into rental housing, including the exact goals of such a program and its structure.

"We should not be penalized because we were not on the favored list of institutions that were deemed 'too-big-to-fail,' " Mike Perry says in a public campaign rarely seen from an executive of a failed bank.