Compliance

WASHINGTON — Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby offered a few hints Wednesday about what to expect from pending regulatory relief legislation due next month.

Regulators can avoid extensive, after-the-fact investigations of banks' illegal actions by standardizing the form and content of transaction data so they can spot compliance problems in real time.

MasterCard Inc. posted first-quarter profit that beat analysts' estimates as consumer-card spending accelerated outside the U.S.

A step-by-step look at GE Capital's breakup plan and its likely aftermath, including recent comments by bankers who may be looking to buy various parts.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is urging banks to reevaluate how they use credit bureaus like ChexSystems, after his investigation found that inaccurate data reported by banks is preventing some consumers from opening checking and savings accounts. Three banks already have agreed to modify their use of ChexSystems in screening potential customers.

The German bank's massive strategic overhaul will include cutting key businesses and leaving 10 countries, but it plans to invest in the U.S. despite all the regulatory troubles it has had here.

For more than a decade, U.S. regulators have been advising bankers to know more about their customers than who they are. In the next five years that may become the global norm as technology allows more granular transaction monitoring.

Large foreign firms are facing key decisions about the size of their footprint here as they approach a Federal Reserve Board requirement to form a separate holding company to house their U.S. subsidiaries.

HSBC Holdings executives said little about the future of their U.S. bank and other underperforming businesses at a sometimes contentious annual shareholder meeting Friday.

DAYTON, Ohio — The Superintendent of the Ohio Division of Financial Institutions on Thursday placed Montgomery County Credit Union, Inc., into conservatorship and appointed the National Credit Union Administration as agent for the conservator.

WASHINGTON — Credit unions can't afford to ignore the potential ramifications of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) recent decision to pull back on new investigations in order to clear out a slew of pending cases.

PayPal is investing heavily in technology to make sure it is properly equipped for the challenge ahead of it when its split from eBay is finalized.

NCUA Director of Examinations and Insurance Larry Fazio testified before Congress today urging legislators consider supporting several NCUA-backed bills that would ease regulation and provide increased flexibility for financial institutions, pointing to the regulatory burden faced by credit unions today, more than three quarters of which have assets of less than $100 million.

Banking regulators will never conclude that regulation is actually hurting community banks until they study the issue and come to that conclusion on their own.

WASHINGTON — House lawmakers clashed this week over a bill making changes to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that would cap the agency's budget in coming years.

As banks have largely ceded the market for government-backed loans to nonbank lenders and servicers, it's fallen on Ginnie Mae to be sure that these nonbanks can meet their obligations to bondholders. It's a huge concern for President Ted Tozer, who says the company does not have the resources or manpower to examine these firms' finances.

Rules published by China's State Council, which take effect June 1, clear the way for Visa and MasterCard to gain a foothold in an industry that the Central Bank said handles 449.9 trillion yuan ($73 trillion) a year.

The National Pawnbrokers Association argues that its members have been unfairly swept up in the Justice Department initiative known as Operation Choke Point. But banks say Choke Point's not to blame: they're closing the accounts of cash-intensive businesses in order to ensure compliance with anti-money-laundering rules.

Rep. Patrick McHenry said Democrats' resistance to passing certain regulatory relief measures is due to a leftward shift.

New York bank regulator Benjamin Lawsky said his investigation into currency trading could go on for months, even after settlements with the U.S. Justice Department. Lawsky spoke at a conference in New York today.