Law and regulation

No one should be surprised that banks would suppress their posted rates in a funding crisis or that they might manipulate the BBA survey for gain. It was easy to see this coming.

Vodafone, Telefonica's O2 unit and Everything Everywhere are set to win unconditional European Union approval for a joint venture to create a U.K. mobile-phone payment platform, according to two people familiar with the decision.

John Walsh, the former acting Comptroller of the Currency, has doubts about the Financial Stability Oversight Council, wishes Dodd-Frank mandated a single federal regulator for banking, but also says regulators need to be efficient in implementing rules required by the legislation.

Shareholders of Wall Street banks who agree with former Citigroup CEO Sanford "Sandy" Weill that the companies should be broken up face an obstacle: bondholders.

Risk management still has its weak spots, despite the valuable lessons banks learned from the financial crisis. Practitioners wonder if stopping the next blow-up is even a reasonable goal for the profession.

Bankers can declare an end to their summer of scandal now that Labor Day is done — but it remains to be seen whether the next few months will be any better.

Lenders embrace the concept of simpler mortgage disclosures but want the bureau to fix shortcomings of the APR before making it the focal point of rule changes.

A consumer group questions why the top five mortgage servicers are getting credit under the $25 billion national mortgage settlement for forgiving principal in short sales when the goal of the program is to keep borrowers in their homes.

The Treasury Department has investigated nine community banks that failed since 2007 for possible criminal conduct that led to their failures. The cases have since been closed, and the agency has elected against filing lawsuits in every case.

Mitt Romney has stated he wants to repeal Dodd-Frank, but GOP members of Congress at the convention in Tampa indicated they're more likely to target the legislation in pieces.

Couple says President Obama, not the banks, is to blame for refinancing difficulty.

Texas congressman, a possible successor to Spencer Bachus as chairman of the Financial Services Committee, say for now he is focused on presidential race between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced Friday that it has instructed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to raise the fees they charge lenders on loan guarantees in hopes of creating more private-sector competition in the secondary loan market.

The so-called bad bank Spain's government will set up to take soured real estate from the lenders it has bailed out will seek private investors and try to sell the assets over 10 to 15 years.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) was accused in a lawsuit of manipulating clients' foreign-exchange transactions for its own benefit.

Programs to strengthen bank liquidity, facilitate credit and buy mortgages were good moves, though it is hard to say how much worse things would have been in their absence, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke said at the Jackson Hole summit.

A small number of alternative financial services providers would be permitted to operate nationwide and on the Internet without adequate policing of their products for underserved consumers.

An excessively-leveraged banking system increases the risk that a crisis in one country will spread to another, according to a paper presented at a Federal Reserve conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Banks and the GOP, mortgage relief and more.

Dodd-Frank, aimed at restoring confidence in the so-called Wall Street banks, had a devastating effect on Main Street banks, and is now threatening their long-established role as the backbone of the American Dream.