Financial institutions

It's official: Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment banking titan, now offers consumer loans.

The head of the international Basel Committee on Banking Supervision underscored the importance of international consistency in banking standards in comments Wednesday before the European Parliament.

A top Wells Fargo executive and a former employee painted very different pictures of the culture and oversight at the San Francisco bank during a hearing by a California Assembly committee on Tuesday that probed the opening of 2 million phony accounts.

The new prepaid rules make it harder for bad actors to enter the industry while also being broad enough to apply to future digital products.

The regulations added in the wake of the financial crisis have made the system safer, but it's time to pause on new rules and find ways to improve what's been put in place already, according to the top executives at some of the largest banks.

WASHINGTON — The Basel Committee will move forward with its final regulatory capital rules by yearend despite threats from the European Union that its members may choose to ignore the standards out of fear that they might stifle growth.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new regulation governing prepaid cards will disrupt consumer practices, drive up costs and wreak havoc on a fast-growing sector within the payments industry.

Current proposals about what to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that still focus on a government-backed solution are misdirected.

As the financial world comes to grips with the news that the European Union has no intention of implementing the final elements of Basel III, observers are scrambling to figure out how much impact the split could have on U.S. banks and global financial stability.

Fourteen senators including Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., sent a letter Wednesday to Attorney General Loretta Lynch calling for the Justice Department to investigate possible criminal wrongdoing by senior executives at Wells Fargo.

The Federal Trade Commission took a victory lap Tuesday in its fight with race car driver Scott Tucker and his payday lending operation.

Prosper Marketplace is closing the secondary market for its loans, citing a lack of demand among investors.

In a stunning move, the European Union signaled that it will not follow the Basel Committee's recommendations on standardized credit, operational and market risk rules, citing concerns that the direction of the proposals would unduly increase capital requirements and stifle economic growth.

Last week's Senate hearing was bad for Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf, but Thursday's House appearance was even worse. Lawmakers moved beyond calling for Stumpf to resign, and said Wells Fargo should be broken up and Stumpf should go to jail.

WASHINGTON — More than one hundred House Democrats sent a letter to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray on Wednesday calling for the agency to strengthen its proposal to rein in payday lending.

Gary "Litefoot" Davis, a member of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma and a music and on-screen personality, was named executive director of the Native American Financial Services Association.

Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen testified for the second consecutive year on regulatory issues, touching on the Fed's stress tests, banks' ownership of commodities, the fate of Wells Fargo and whether the central bank acts in a political fashion.

WASHINGTON — Members of the Senate Banking Committee introduced legislation Wednesday that would make municipal debt securities more attractive to banks.

Since John Stumpf's appearance before the Senate Banking Committee last week, the situation has become even worse for the Wells Fargo CEO, with new lawsuits filed, the Labor Department opening an investigation and the CFTC fining it for an unrelated action. Here's what to expect when Stumpf appears in the House on Thursday.

The bad-news stories about the largest institutions are worrisome in light of housing finance proposals that could benefit the big banks even more.