Law and regulation

Visa swung to a loss of $1.8 billion in the third quarter, as it paid its portion of a $6 billion settlement agreement with retailers that was announced earlier this month.

Visa posted a fiscal third-quarter profit that beat analysts' estimates as credit and debit card spending rose.

Comments by former Citigroup chief executive Sandy Weill reignited the debate over whether to separate commercial banking from investment banking.

"If I could push a button and eliminate Dodd-Frank would I do it? No, I would not," says Goldman Sach’s Lloyd Blankfein.

Sandy Weill's call to break up big banks invoked the Main Street bankers who have blasted Wall Street fat cats like him for years. What next for him — a director post at a small bank in Peoria?

The House of Representatives easily approved Republican Rep. Ron Paul's bill authorizing a broad audit of the Federal Reserve Board. The bill is not expected to pass the Senate.

Banks and institutional investors in loans caught a break when the SEC and CFTC decided not to define loan participation agreements as swaps under Dodd-Frank. A decision otherwise would have ended business as usual.

JPMorgan Chase's Disney debit rewards card was one of many that banks eliminated after regulation led to a slash in debit interchange revenue. Now the card is making a comeback — with a few changes.

Distressed homeowners have received only 10 percent of nearly $46 billion in federal aid since the money was allocated in 2009 under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, a U.S. auditor's report said today.

Global regulators took a further step in refining a capital framework by specifying the amount of capital banks should keep to cover their exposure to central counterparties.

The CEOs who lead our largest banks ought to be spending their time trying to get ahead of the next problem and righting their corporate cultures. If they don't, it may be only a matter of time before Congress breaks them up, argues Editor-at-Large Barbara A. Rehm

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's boss appeared before a House oversight subcommittee known for its hostility and got off surprisingly easy.

Financial markets remain highly complex webs subject to major systemic shocks we are ill-equipped to identify before our financial system melts down.

Visa Europe may receive an antitrust complaint from European Union regulators over credit card fees, the EU's competition commissioner said.

A regulatory settlement or a Senate hearing can remove a particular cloud enveloping an institution, but create deeper doubts than the ones it removes.

Sanford "Sandy" Weill, who ushered in the era of supermarket banks with the creation of Citigroup (C) before the financial crisis, said U.S. lenders should be broken up to protect taxpayers.

Banks will be forced to put more capital behind derivatives trades in a push by global regulators to protect market stability and reinforce clearinghouses.

Last week's enforcement order against Capital One "signaled the CFPB is shooting for higher settlement amounts, is more interested in providing a detailed account of what went wrong, and wants to specify exactly what institutions should do in similar situations," writes American Banker's Kevin Wack.

Bankers who want to cash out ahead of a potential hike in the capital gains tax next year need to act fast, M&A experts say.

The yield curve flattened and it showed in margins among the first wave of banks to post second quarter results. But a sizeable group used some remaining levers – like the retirement of trust-preferred securities – to buck the trend.