Law and regulation

American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. Comments are excerpted from reader response sections of AmericanBanker.com articles and our social media platforms.

Steven Mnuchin's confirmation hearing is likely to be dogged by stories of homeowners who claim his bank, OneWest, illegally foreclosed on them. While the stories are unlikely to prevent President-elect Donald J. Trump's pick from being confirmed, it could weaken Mnuchin politically and rehash grievances from the financial crisis.

Privatizing the government-sponsored enterprises is a priority for Treasury Secretary-designate Steven Mnuchin. Here's a look at what it will take to pull off and the potential implications for the mortgage industry of unwinding the conservatorship.

As the outgoing administration stresses the need for stricter regulatory requirements on new fintech companies, technology companies are urging President-elect Donald Trump to lower the barriers to entry for new financial industry players.

WASHINGTON – The debate over housing finance reform appears to have new life as both Democrats and the next administration appear ready to take up the issue.

Citi's Debby Hopkins is retiring at the end of this year and Fidelity's Abigail Johnson is taking over for her father as its new chairman. Beth Mooney, Morgan Cambern, Claire Calmejane, and other execs talk about the impact fintech has had in their jobs and why technology should be embraced and not feared. Meanwhile, Citi faces a suit from a former trader over its alleged "Bro's Club" practices.

Despite a robust anti-money-laundering regime imposed on banks and money services businesses in the U.S., a number of loopholes are allowing other companies to skate by without performing basic due diligence to curb the flow of illicit funds, according to a report by the Financial Action Task Force.

Some regulatory agencies appear ripe for criticism or curbs to their authority in the incoming Trump administration, but the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is in position to have its authority expanded.

You'd rather have a heart surgeon who has done a lot of bypasses than a novice, right? Perhaps the same thinking should apply to commercial lenders, according to several university researchers challenging the orthodoxy that making too many of the same kind of loans can only spell doom.

WASHINGTON -- A federal court in California has accepted a controversial request from the IRS to obtain the records of possibly millions of users of the bitcoin exchange Coinbase.