Law and regulation

Preferred Bank (PFBC) of Los Angeles has signed a memorandum of understanding with regulators after a more formal consent order was lifted.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's chief is on his way out. Banks may soon be hearing a lot more from this agency than they have in the last few years.

The Community Mortgage Lenders of America wants the two government-sponsored enterprises preserved in their current form.

The Senate Banking Committee announced Thursday that it had pushed back its hearing with JPMorgan Chase (JPM) chairman and chief executive Jamie Dimon to June 13.

The regulators' proposal doesn't consider accounting rules for deciding which trades are proprietary and which ones get the exemption for hedging. That leaves plenty of room for regulatory arbitrage by banks.

The dust-up over Jim Freis' dismissal as director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network reflects a fundamental disagreement between Treasury and Fincen over the role the agency plays and just how independent it should be.

American Banker's metro Washington reporters found themselves working above a crime scene on Wednesday, after a PNC bank branch in the same building was robbed.

But the consulting firm says the sector remains an integral part of the U.S. financial system and cautions against overregulating it.

The Board of Governors will hold a public meeting to vote on a set of proposals that will implement global banking rules, known as Basel III.

Rep. Barney Frank has introduced a bill that would prohibit financial executives from purchasing insurance to protect themselves from compensation clawback penalties.

The American Bankers Association joined trade groups in every state Wednesday to urge passage of a bill easing fee disclosure rules at automated tellers.

Banks received two years to bring automated teller machines into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. As soon as the deadline passed, plaintiffs' lawyers pounced on the stragglers.

Jeremy Stein, a professor of economics at Harvard University, became the seventh governor to join the Federal Reserve Board, the central bank said Wednesday.

Wilshire State Bank in Los Angeles has been released from an enforcement order that required it to boost its capital ratios and reduce its level of problem loans.

Prepaid companies have lowered their card fees over the past few years, but now regulators may give the still-fractured industry another push towards simpler prices.

Politicians and regulators want taxpayers to believe two things: first, that financial crisis had multiple complex causes mostly related to excessive risk-taking, conflicts of interest and deregulation — a view unconvincingly supported by the exculpatory 662 page summary Report of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission; second, that public regulation is a sisyphean task requiring the 2313 page Dodd-Frank Act. This diagnosis and prescription are both wrong.

The House Financial Services Committee is set to vote on a bill that would benefit just one institutions: Emigrant Bank, whose CEO Howard Milstein has made contributions to many of the bill's co-sponsors. And people wonder why Americans are cynical about politicians.

Prepaid cardholders are certain to enjoy more federal protection soon. But it remains open to debate how much those protections should resemble those for conventional bank accounts.

JPMorgan's trading loss should send shudders down the spine of shareholders, management and regulators. The once paragon of risk management has turned into a case study of what not to do.

The Federal Reserve Board has given a Premier Bank in Denver 90 days to become adequately capitalized or sell itself.