Regulation

Speaking at American Banker's Regulatory Symposium, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Vice Chairman Thomas Hoenig said complex firms should not discount regulators' warnings of heightened supervision if their 2015 resolution plans fail to impress.

The Federal Reserve is tracking the competitive climate among community banks, including the dearth of new charter activity. Key officials also used opening remarks at the Fed's community banking conference to outline ways they are trying to improve communication with bankers.

In a broad-ranging Q&A at American Banker's Regulatory Symposium, Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry questioned the asset threshold used to subject larger banks to enhanced rules, and discussed examiners' concerns about the "culture" at banks.

There were fewer institutions originating mortgages in 2013, while low- and moderate-income borrowers took a smaller share of industry volume, according to the recently released Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data.

Mortgage underwriting overlays are not only tighter than they were precrisis, they're more restrictive than they were 15 years ago — a trend that Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro wants to change.

Wells Fargo agreed to pay $5 million to settle U.S. regulatory claims that its brokerage unit failed to prevent an employee from trading on nonpublic information related to the 2010 acquisition of Burger King.

Rebeca Romero Rainey, the CEO of Centinel Bank of Taos, will use part of her speech at a Federal Reserve conference on small banks this week to discuss the need for regulatory relief and her belief that community bankers have a duty to persevere under difficult circumstances.

A panel at American Banker's Regulatory Symposium about the Department of Justice program featured a spirited debate about whether it is prudently fighting fraud or cooling banks' relationships with legal businesses.

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser, who votes on policy this year, will retire after eight years in which he became a consistent critic of the central bank's unprecedented easing.

There is a good chance legislation that would provide regulatory relief to small banks and address concerns about which banks are dubbed systemically important could be wrapped in the same Senate bill next year, experts said at American Banker's 4th Annual Regulatory Symposium.