Law and regulation

John Ducrest, the commissioner of the Louisiana Office of Financial Institutions, will serve a second term on the Financial Stability Oversight Council.

The theme of many Dodd-Frank two-year anniversary articles this summer was all about how many rules required by the legislation were still up in the air. That might be about to change.

FDIC board member Thomas Hoenig said bankers do not fully appreciate the public's rebuke of their industry or the market advantages big banks still enjoy over their competitors.

After lagging behind last year's record pace for the bulk of the year, FDCPA lawsuits have closed the gap.

A simpler calculation isn't necessarily the right one. If a capital ratio misrepresents a bank's risk or creates incentives to take on more of it, simple is scarcely an improvement.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William C. Dudley said the central bank's new stimulus is vital for boosting "unacceptably slow" improvement in economic growth.

New HMDA data show FHA- and VA-supported loans holding a huge share of the market as overall home loans and refis are still on the decline.

Fannie Mae has named the former chief litigation counsel for Pfizer (PFE) as its general counsel and corporate secretary.

The Federal Reserve Board has lifted a written agreement with a Taiwanese company and its Los Angeles branch that stemmed from their Bank Secrecy Act compliance.

We can only speculate about the real purpose for the Volcker Rule.

The 59% increase in the government subsidy reflects an increase in loan defaults, not loan demand.

Patrick M. Parkinson, former head of supervision for the Federal Reserve Board, has joined Promontory Financial Group.

Adopting universal terminology will allow financial institutions to quickly identify, understand and share information about threats, plan for different scenarios and build the systems required to effectively defend their interests.

Although Federal Housing Administration-backed loans showed a downward trickle last year, federal mortgage insurance still makes up a sizeable chunk of the housing market, new government data said Tuesday.

The inspector general of the Federal Housing Finance Agency has pushed the agency to take more oversight over Fannie and Freddie, upending Freddie's mortgage putback practices and drawing out details of a special servicing program.

A group of state attorneys general is investigating how major banks process and sell delinquent credit card accounts.

"The 20% down payment is not part of our proposal," said Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray, in Senate testimony, about the qualified mortgage rule.

Two Citigroup executives are departing after federal prosecutors named them earlier this year in a mortgage-insurance fraud case that resulted in a $158.3 million settlement and an admission of wrongdoing by the bank.

Fannie Mae had little choice but to pay a premium to Bank of America to free up pools of loans so that it could put them in better hands, an inspector general's report finds.

With just three and a half months left until 2013, regulators are under pressure to release a boatload of new regulations, including some of the most contentious items on their plate.