Law and regulation

If the Shazam electronic funds transfer network had its way, smart cards issued with EMV chips would require a single PIN that would both open the chip and route the transaction for settlement. But "that's still under discussion," an exec says.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency took another step to alleviate burden on borrowers struggling with their mortgage payments.

Regulatory agencies have jointly proposed new standards, required by Dodd-Frank, for mortgage appraisals. But many of the standards “have largely already been adopted by the industry, observers said, due to the fallout from the housing crisis,” write American Banker’s Joe Adler and Kate Berry.

Yes, megabanks provide useful, all-in-one services. But their biggest customers challenge the argument that they need financial behemoths to operate globally.

Yes, megabanks provide useful, all-in-one services. But their biggest customers challenge the argument that financial behemoths should be held together for their sake.

Big businesses' mixed feelings about their large bank partners are especially obvious when the conversation turns to proposed reforms of money-market funds, which corporate treasurers say could increase the power of "too big to fail" banks.

A federal charter for National Consumer Credit Corporations could help community bankers serve (and profit off) low-to-moderate-income consumers.

The banking industry, reeling from public outrage and increased regulation, is proving incapable of finding a champion to replace sidelined JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.

Citigroup became the first Western bank to issue credit cards in China without co-branding from a local financial institution as the government relaxes restrictions in the world's second-largest economy.

The group's lack of transparency is symptomatic of a self- regulated system that failed to stop traders around the world manipulating the world's most widely usThe Libor Committee's lack of transparency is symptomatic of a self- regulated system that failed to stop traders around the world manipulating the world's most widely used benchmark interest rate for profit.ed benchmark interest rate for profit.

The BdB German Banking Association, which represents Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, wants the European Central Bank to have sole responsibility for regulatory supervision of all euro-region banks.

David Cohen, the Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said the new director, Jennifer Shasky Calvery, is "a perfect fit."

While the president urged Congress to act before the end of the year, he did not sound optimistic about that happening.

After years of questions over whether regulators can impose "source-of-strength" rules, regulators are prepping a clearer standard that would, among other things, give them more oversight of some commercial firms such as Target and Toyota.

Issuers exempt from the regulatory caps on debit card interchange are exploring the chance to grow their business-debit initiatives, stealing customers from larger rivals that now see such programs as unprofitable.

Fifth Third Bank is launching a commercial card that has an EMV chip to allow the bank's business customers to make payments overseas.

Unprecedented regulatory demands and competition require banks to continue innovating and diversifying, says Aubrey Patterson, the Tupelo, Miss.-based company's longtime CEO, in a wide-ranging interview.

The Treasury Department announced Monday that it has tapped Jennifer Shasky Calvery as its new director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

Standard Chartered did a lousy job of picking a monitor on behalf of regulators who'd flag its compliance lapses in the past. Now New York's Department of Financial Services must pick an independent monitor to oversee the British bank's activities for the next two years.

Feedback from supervisors can help to improve decisions sometimes merely by posing the right questions and pursuing the answers. Supervisors can be especially important in providing an independent review of the quality of decisionmaking within a company.