Enforcement

It's hard to decide which is more surprising: that the largest U.S. bank has almost abandoned the business of making home loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration, that lots of big banks could be right behind it, or that the FHA might not even need to care.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has struggled internally with how to end potential discrimination in auto lending, including debating whether it should cite a large lender in the hopes of effectively ending the ability of partnering dealers to mark up loans with all lenders.

Officials signaled that Hudson City Savings Bank's nearly $33 million settlement over redlining charges is only the first in what is likely to be a string of other cases.

Federal officials on Thursday ordered Hudson City Savings Bank to pay more than $27 million to resolve redlining allegations, the largest order of its kind and one that is likely to put larger banks on notice that redlining cases will be aggressively pursued.

Kelly Cochran has vetted every rule that comes out of the agency, making her one of the most influential people in the financial services industry.

In a series of internal documents that were reviewed by American Banker, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau officials repeatedly acknowledge its methodology could overcount the potential discrimination by firms, but say they prefer that to the alternative where bias is underestimated.

One of the top anti-money-laundering regulators warned credit unions Tuesday that many do not appear to be properly following reporting requirements.

License numbers for loan officers, real estate agents and settlement agents will be required on one of the new TILA-Respa integrated disclosure forms, raising questions about whether they could trigger investigations of possible illegal marketing services agreements.

The rest of the credit card industry continues to be dogged by slow loan growth, but retail-branded cards are bouncing back, thanks largely to a big push by merchants.

New York's banking regulator has reached an agreement with four of the banks developing an online message service to store records for potential access by regulators and other officials.