Regulation

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week.

Green Dot Corp. plans to start offering credit lines to its customers, a move that likely foreshadows how new regulations will reshape the prepaid card industry.

American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. Comments are excerpted from reader response sections of AmericanBanker.com articles and from social media platforms and the blogosphere.

Two Republican legislators have suggested that affordable housing funding should be put on hold until Congress finally decides what to do about Fannie and Freddie. But why give Congress another six years to fiddle around with housing finance while the poor and homeless face a declining level of government housing assistance?

The Federal Reserve Board is seeking public comment on a proposal that would exempt banks with less than $1 billion in total assets from certain debt limits, a move favored by community banks.

The ability of Somali-Americans to send cash home to their relatives is again in peril after a California bank decided to stop facilitating the money transfers, according to a foreign aid organization that has been monitoring the situation.

No matter how the European payments landscape looks after the European Commission's new version of the Payment Services Directive takes effect, merchants can almost certainly expect lower rates for accepting card transactions.

Federal Reserve officials suggested that anonymous payments and the technologies powering digital currencies could inform broader plans for reshaping the U.S. payment system.

In yet another revision of its mortgage rules, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed making it easier for small and rural lenders to make "qualified mortgages." Industry representatives said the changes are poised to make a big difference.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to review loan modifications offered by private student lenders, a business that the agency has said victimized some borrowers with subprime-style debt.