Law and regulation

The central bank on Wednesday said it discussed the Volcker Rule and proposed counterparty limits at a private meeting with the leaders of several big banks, including Brian Moynihan of Bank of America Corp.

MasterCard's first-quarter profit rose 21% from a year earlier, as the payments network picked up debit card business in the wake of new regulations.

Marking its official exit from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, Regions Financial (RF) in Birmingham announced Wednesday that it has repurchased the warrant it sold to the Treasury Department as part of the program.

The gods of irony must be alive and well at American Banker. It's hard to think of a better explanation for the April 30 tirade against "deadbeats" from Andrew Kahr — whose approach to the credit business was described this way in a front-page San Francisco Chronicle news story in 2002:

A small sliver of the Fed's massive proposal to enhance supervision of the largest banks spells out exactly what enterprise-wide risk management should look like. It may be the single best shot at preventing another financial crisis.

In a letter to the FHFA, Republicans in Congress highlighted the potential downsides of allowing write-downs.

Recently, the issue of a lender's authority and right to pursue foreclosure on defaulted residential mortgage loans has become a subject of national interest. It is at the heart of the $25 billion settlement agreed to recently between the Federal government, 49 state attorneys general and the nation's five largest loan servicers.

In a speech, Federal Reserve Board Governor Daniel Tarullo stressed the need for regulators to implement a set of regulatory reform efforts to help allay risks of future government bailouts.

The Fed's counterparty limit is not so much a banking rule as an indirect antitrust rule. It will create opportunities for smaller institutions to compete. That's the real reason terrified big-bank CEOs are meeting with Fed Governor Tarullo.

Patricia Geoghegan, the Special Master for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, talks about pay determinations for the largest remaining Tarp companies, the office's lasting legacy and the ongoing debate about compensation.

A study released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve Board showed that interchange fees are lower, but the savings were not passed on to consumers.

House Democrats turned up the heat on the Federal Housing Finance Agency by releasing documents that shed additional light on an aborted plan to test principal reductions at Fannie Mae in 2010.

Federal Reserve Board Gov. Daniel Tarullo is set to meet Wednesday in New York with the top executives of several large banks, including JPM Chase's Jamie Dimon. The meeting will focus on the central bank's recent stress tests, among other things.

The Federal Reserve Board has terminated a written agreement with MidSouth Bank after capital levels improved and noncurrent loans decreased at the Murfreesboro, Tenn., company.

Executive compensation has been an important topic in the investor community for over a decade. Unfortunately, shareholders have gone largely unheard and the issue has been little more than a blip on the radar of corporate America.

The banking industry is not relenting in its fight against new Internal Revenue Service rules that will require more tax reporting on accounts held by foreigners.

The Office of Congressional Ethics voted 6-0 to dismiss allegations that Rep. Spencer Bachus, the House Financial Services Committee chairman, engaged in insider trading.

In the Federal Reserve Board's most recent survey of loan officers, bankers have a host of concerns keeping them away from originating loans held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Dodd-Frank went a long way toward ending too-big-to-fail. Since large, diversified financial institutions provide significant economic value to clients, the likely effect of arbitrary and preemptive break-ups would be to concede global financial leadership to other jurisdictions.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Monday it has hired a new assistant director for its Office of Minority and Women Inclusion, which will work with other regulators to assess diversity policies and practices at banks and nonbanks.