Regulation

At a hearing Tuesday, GOP lawmakers hammered FHFA Director Mel Watt for four hours over his recent decisions to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy loans with lower downpayments and provide money to two affordable housing trust funds.

Homeowners associations seeking unpaid dues are seizing on a court decision allowing them to foreclose on properties ahead of banks, and the FHFA is litigating to defend Fannie and Freddie mortgages. Private lenders, meanwhile, are trying to keep the problem from spreading to more states.

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a bulletin Tuesday warning financial institutions about entering into agreements with third parties that share or hide information related to regulatory exams.

A spate of recent account closings at churches and charities suggests that Operation Choke Point and other de-risking directives are causing collateral damage to faith-based organizations.

The Federal Reserve System threw its weight behind a host of standards, goals and timelines yesterday that are likely to shape the quest to build a faster U.S. payment system.

In a new detailed report, the Federal Reserve laid out four options for upgrading the creaky U.S. payment system. The study raised questions about how far the Fed can, and should, go to bring about change.

WASHINGTON — The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has named Michael Brickman as deputy comptroller for special supervision.

The Supreme Court gave borrowers the path to file a rescission notice without going to court, but experts expect more banks to initiate legal proceedings to stop rescissions they see as frivolous.

The Fed appears to have looked at Bitcoin as a means for real-time payments in the banking system but shelved the concept for now.

The Federal Reserve System released a detailed vision Monday for improving the speed of the U.S. payment system.