Law and regulation

WASHINGTON — The Office of Comptroller of the Currency on Tuesday announced the appointment of Donna Deale as deputy comptroller for thrift supervision.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke rose to the defense of the New York Fed over its handling of reports as far back as four years ago that Barclays traders had been manipulating the London interbank offered rate.

In his first speech since agreeing to oversee the $25 billion agreement, Joseph Smith said that he can't police new servicing standards without help from borrowers and their representatives.

An anonymous letter sent to some shareholders of PrepaYd Inc. appears to have ties to a California Department of Corporations subpoena the prepaid card company received a year ago. And it has the company's CEO fuming.

The populist rhetoric is heating up in Montana Senate race between Jon Tester and his Republican rival. Both the tone of the race and its ultimate outcome will have big implications for banking.

Jim McMahon may have been a master at the Super Bowl Shuffle dance, but the former Chicago Bears quarterback apparently was less skilled as a bank director.

HSBC's head of group compliance, David Bagley, told a Senate hearing he will step down amid charges the bank gave terrorists, drug cartels and criminals access to the U.S. financial system by failing to guard against money laundering.

The city says the bank's inaction has blighted neighborhoods, but U.S. Bank insists it is suing the wrong party.

The regulator's recent report highlights supposedly high-priority concerns about small banks without mentioning the size, concentration and real risks of the megabanks.

The CFPB announced that it will include credit rating agencies in the scope of its supervision. Dodd-Frank authorizes the agency to extend its oversight to non-lending institutions.

In the United States, outlining a different narrative about what happened in the financial crisis opens one to political attack.

WASHINGTON — The House Financial Services Committee has opened a bipartisan examination of allegations that the London interbank offered rate was manipulated.

The credit card industry's proposed deal to settle long-pending retailer lawsuits set insiders chattering, divided over how much each side won and lost in the deal.

The cost of Dodd-Frank is driving banks to charge more for checking accounts and, in turn, driving more customers out of the banking fold and into the prepaid world, writes a compliance specialist at Hancock Bank.

Investigations subcommittee will focus on global bank in effort to illustrate money-laundering problems at institutions with large correspondent banking platforms.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has filed a motion for his state's pension funds to join other pension funds in leading a class-action lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase (JPM) for losses related to its chief investment office.

The central bank has brought back a process scrapped in the late 1990s, where it will review preliminary merger plans of untested buyers pursuing unusual deals.

Most merchants dread the idea of surcharging consumers at the point of sale, even if Visa and MasterCard are giving them explicit permission in a proposed legal settlement. But the option could prove valuable to merchants as they negotiate new contracts.

Visa and MasterCard, in a drive to tip the scales in favor of card issuers over merchants, have established policies over the years that have led to tens of billions in costs and losses through litigation settlements and legislation.

Northern Trust (NTRS) announced Monday that it has named a former top official at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago as its chief economist.