Law and regulation

Patterns in the private student-lending industry are dangerously similar to those seen in the housing market prior to its collapse, according to a study expected to be released Friday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The Federal Reserve Board has put the kibosh on Virginia Commerce Bancorp's plan to start paying back the Treasury Department this summer.

The FDIC wants banks to remove its name from a fee that covers their deposit insurance assessments. Bankers say the instruction runs counter to complaints that bank fees are often too vaguely defined.

Habitat for Humanity, the non-profit homebuilder and lender, is concerned that overly strict standards on a borrower's ability to repay its loan could put it out of business.

The Federal Reserve Board has ended a written agreement with Premier Financial that required the Dubuque, Iowa, company to develop a plan to maintain sufficient capital and an adequate allowance for loan and leases losses.

A proposal by San Bernardino County to use eminent domain to take control of underwater mortgages would hurt government-sponsored entities Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks. It would also hurt plans to reduce the government's role in housing.

Magna Bank in Memphis, Tenn. has switched to a state charter, dumping the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in favor of a state regulator that management believes is more familiar with its local market.

The CEO of State National Bank of Big Spring faced pushback from House Democrats over his argument that Dodd-Frank is squeezing small banks.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is delaying a decision on the definition of "large market participant' for the collection industry, Peggy Twohig, assistant director of nonbank supervision for the agency said Thursday at ACA International's Annual Convention.

New analysis from a nonpartisan group shows that JPMorgan officials accounted for 18% of all industry meetings with the Fed concerning Dodd-Frank implementation over the past two years, while JPMorgan accounted for 17% of all meetings with Treasury. Goldman Sachs, which also held hundreds of discussions with regulators, focused mainly on the CFTC.

"The Daily Show" host took several sharp stabs at the growing Libor scandal on Wednesday night, equating the bankers that manipulated the interbank lending rate with the villains of a "Da Vinci Code"-type thriller.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council voted to designate eight financial-market utilities as "systemically important." They will will be subject to heightened risk management standards under Dodd-Frank.

From the Card Act to the CFPB to Durbin, new regulations succeed only in raising the prices or crimping availability of financial services. Memo to politicians: Google "unintended consequences."

You can't claim to be a victim of watchdogs and at the same time blame watchdogs for being dumb, inept and disorganized.

The supense is over: the CFPB flexed its enforcement muscle. Capital One's practices for marketing credit card add-on products was the subject of the agency's first enforcement order.

U.S. regulators led the world in developing Legal Entity Identifiers. Now that the G20 has embraced the idea, though, we need to get on the same page with other nations.

Stricter state regulation of payday lenders slows use of the loans and doesn't drive borrowers online or out of state, says the Pew Charitable Trusts in a new report.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., announced Wednesday he is ending his opposition to an industry-backed bill ensuring banks can keep their claim of privilege when handing confidential information to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Should Davis Polk be designated at a "Sytemically Important Financial Illustrator," asks the Financial Times, in reference to a "gem" of a chart that the law firm created to track Dodd-Frank's progress at age 2.

FSOC makes its first official designation of large firms that will be subject to new Dodd-Frank regulatory regime.