Regulation

Loans or other investments that "revitalize or stabilize federally designated disaster areas" could help boost banks' scores on Community Reinvestment Act exams, the FDIC said in a letter to institutions.

It all seemed so simple. The cause of the financial crisis was that private label securitizers of subprime mortgage loans weren't required to "have enough skin in the game," so Dodd-Frank would require them to retain 5% of the risk.

ICBA says fair-lending actions overstep legal authority by focusing outside a bank's CRA assessment boundaries.

In 2008 the Democratic nominee raised far more money from Wall Street than John McCain. But for 2012, the financial industry is favoring Mitt Romney over the incumbent president.

Community bankers say they'll continue offering free checking for the foreseeable future, even if they're not entirely happy about it. If they followed the big banks by adding fees or changing terms, "we'd lose the accounts," says one local banker.

Krueger, who would succeed Austan Goolsbee on the Council of Economic Advisers, had stints in both the Treasury and Labor departments

Remember that fuss about the dire danger of having an unknowable but evidently substantial number of banks that are Too Big to Fail? The message was: "Stop that!"

The Federal Reserve Board said Friday it will hold three public hearings on Capital One Financial Corp.'s proposed $9 billion purchase of online bank ING Direct USA.

The $3.4 billion-asset company announced last week that it paid $600,000 for a ham — the grand champion ham at the 48th Kentucky Country Ham Auction, an annual charity event.

The Washington Monument and the National Cathedral got most of the press coverage, but the Capitol Hill beehive for financial industry insiders also sustained a bit of damage in Tuesday's earthquake.