Compliance

The Dodd-Frank Act is a burden on community banks and credit unions but regulators are struggling to quantify the costs, according to a report released Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office.

WASHINGTON — The Dodd-Frank Act is a burden on credit unions and community banks but regulators are struggling to quantify the costs, according to a report released Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office.

Mortgage lenders on both the residential and commercial sides of the business will have to deal with a different lending environment in 2016. These include enforcement of TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure violations plus rising interest rates and the impact on origination volumes. Here are 10 observations that originators need to mull over while crafting their business plans for the coming year.

A federal judge is urging the parties of a closely watched pot-banking case to settle their dispute.

A federal judge is urging the parties of a closely watched pot-banking case to settle their dispute.

In a closely-watched Colorado case that could set a precedent for financial institutions seeking to serve marijuana retailers, a judge has encouraged both parties to consider a mellow resolution.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is charging the law firm Frederick J. Hanna & Associates $3.1 million over allegations that it illegally filed debt collection lawsuits against consumers.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., has a limited window to move his regulatory reform legislation next year, after failing to secure passage for the bill as part of the budget fight.

The banking group, already irate over a plan to drastically change the timing of loan-loss provisions, is blasting remarks by FASB Chairman Russell Golden linking community banks to the financial crisis. FASB, meanwhile, said the comments were meant to be a criticism of current credit loss models — not banks.

Officials who assess how well banks lend and invest in their communities seem out of sync with the experiences of Main Street.

How can your company avoid missteps? By engaging with your shareholders in a constructive way. Dialogue between companies and shareholders — if approached in the right spirit — can yield valuable strategic insights and positively impact financial performance.

One of the more unusual financial crime stories of the year concerned two men who were charged with operating an illegal Bitcoin exchange through a now-shuttered New Jersey credit union.

FBI accuses two Florida men with operating illegal Bitcoin exchange through now-defunct New Jersey credit union.

Participants in an alleged credit card laundering scheme have agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they illegally helped provide access to payment networks, thereby enabling scammers to place bogus charges on consumers’ credit cards.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced settlements Wednesday with student banking business Higher One of New Haven, Conn., and WEX Bank of Midvale, Utah, for deceptive practices in the marketing of college and university debit accounts.

Privacy advocates were appalled by the cybersecurity act Congress passed in the omnibus spending bill, with its abandonment of data-privacy provisions that existed in earlier versions. Now consumer and business-client privacy is at the discretion of the banks and other private companies.

The ease with which Congress was able to take money from the Federal Reserve to pay for a highway transportation bill — by slashing the dividend the central bank pays large banks — is likely to encourage lawmakers to take another dip into the Fed's books next year.

Existing-home sales plummeted in November confirming fears in the mortgage industry that a new consumer disclosure rule is delaying mortgage closings.

A healthy bank culture can only be built from within, rather than as a compliance exercise to satisfy regulators.

Some mortgage investors are refusing to buy home loans that are at risk of violations of new consumer-disclosure rules. The problem appears to be worst among nonagency jumbo loans purchased by private investors.