Law and regulation

Nine of the most systemically important banks will submit their resolution plans to the FDIC and Federal Reserve by Tuesday, with the public portion of the so-called living wills expected to be released that afternoon.

Brian Sack, the head of the New York Fed's markets group, has rescinded his resignation and will stay with the bank as a senior adviser to President William Dudley.

Alleged panaceas abound for the banking industry's ills. Unfortunately, many are likely to prove less effective than advertised, cause collateral damage, or both. Here's a look at some of the most popular silver-bullet proposals and their shortcomings.

The high court declined to rule this week in a case involving the right of consumers to sue banks for failing to post ATM fees. That leads banks back to Capitol Hill in their quest for relief from a costly spate of nuisance lawsuits.

Robert Maddox, who negotiated the $25 billion national mortgage settlement on behalf of Ally Financial, insists that the penalty far exceeds the damage done to borrowers.

Many borrowers with great credit can't get financing rates commensurate with their low risk. There's a major opportunity for banks to generate attractive returns by providing fairly priced student loans to these customers.

Rep. Barney Frank says the Supreme Court's ruling on Thursday to uphold President Obama's healthcare reform legislation gives a bleak outlook for legal opposition to Obama's other major piece of legislation: the Dodd-Frank Act.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is required under Dodd-Frank to study the reverse mortgage sector, has found that the products "are not being used as intended, with increasingly younger borrowers taking out larger pots of money rather than gradual income streams to help finance their later years," writes American Banker's Joe Adler in his coverage of the bureau's report.

Eighteen institutions (and counting) are accused of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.

In a case that could have narrowed the ability to sue under numerous consumer protection laws, the Supreme Court decided Thursday not to issue a ruling, saying that it was wrong to hear the case in the first place.

The CFPB finalized a rule Thursday that seeks to ensure that information banks give the bureau through supervision retains attorney-client privilege.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond has ordered Village Bank and Trust Financial in Midlothian, Va., to serve as a source of strength for its ailing bank subsidiary.

The Government Accountability Office put new pressure on the agency to make a decision after months of foot-dragging.

Regulators are taking a hard look at payday lending practices, and that could give banks an unprecedented edge over storefront operators.

Merchants may feel overwhelmed at the abundance of new payment technologies, and they are understandably worried about investing in the wrong one. Terminal vendors are hoping to address those fears.

In a report released Thursday, the Government Accountability Office flagged concerns about the rising use of appraisal management companies as well as the government's oversight of the appraisal industry.

PNC Bank reached a $90 million settlement this week in a class-action lawsuit over excessive overdraft fees, the latest of several big banks to do so.

Though loan competition remains fierce, most banks are unwilling to relax their underwriting policies until the economy heals.

Much time and energy was spent on a campaign to regulate an optional service consumers could avoid paying for. Meanwhile, mortgage securitization was going gangbusters. Priorities were perhaps misplaced.

A government watchdog has found that the Federal Home Loan banks increasingly turned to offering short-term, unsecured credit to financial institutions exposed to the turmoil in Europe as their own core business dwindled.