Law and regulation

Most major banks sell rights to soured loans to debt collectors for pennies on the dollar. Those pennies can add up to tens of millions in dollars in revenue for a large card issuer, but American Express and USAA have long left that money on the table.

Strategic defaulters have lost the incentive to pay. Something should be done to replace that incentive, not simply reduce debt.

The CFPB is seeking information for a study about consumer arbitration clauses, viewed by observers as the first step toward imposing restrictions on the controversial provisions.

One of the nation's largest medical collection agencies allegedly placed employees in emergency rooms, cancer wards and delivery rooms to extract payments from patients before they were seen by medical staff, according to a report released Tuesday by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson's office.

Senka Huskic is mad, very mad and wants you to share that anger. Think a "Network" kind of anger, a Howard Beale kind of anger, a genuine bona fide "I'm mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore" kind of anger.

A program unveiled by two federal agencies Tuesday will allow banks to provide more than just loans to aspiring small-business owners.

In the House, the partisan debate over how to end the too-big-to-fail problem has become part of the argument over deficit reduction.

The chief financial officer of a collection agency in Kalispell, Mont. was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for tax evasion and ordered to pay $159,000 in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Goldman Sachs shareholders will decide next month whether to reelect board member James A. Johnson, a former CEO of Fannie Mae, who is facing vocal opposition from a large mutual fund investor.

Is it fair to give a 30% haircut to borrowers who put zero down, and not to their neighbors who put 30% down? Or to distribute taxpayer funds to five states with half the country's negative equity?

Zions Bancorporation's (ZION) repayment of half of its funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program tamped down earnings in the first quarter, but its core results still handily beat expectations.

In inaugural meeting for directors Hoenig and Norton, agency's staff outlined further reductions in projected losses from bank failures.

The executives of United Western Bank filed a motion for summary judgment that also spares no criticism of how the OTS handled the Denver thrift's failure in early 2011. The motion claims that the now-defunct regulator closed the thrift despite evidence that management had just raised $200 million in life-saving capital.

You've heard the philosophical question: If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

For differing reasons, parties in at least two cases are seeking appeals courts to weigh in on so-called "business judgment" rules, which would have a significant effect on FDIC lawsuits against bankers at failed institutions.

In a win for the banking industry, Sen. Charles Schumer says that the business lending measure is not likely to be considered until at least the second half of the year, dimming its chances of enactment.

A quick read of a recent New York Times story could suggest a tidal move back into subprime lending. But a closer look reveals a major exception: before the crisis, consumers with weak credit were warmly invited to borrow on unsecured bank credit cards. No more.

With the CFPB looking broadly at third-party relationships, lenders need to know the qualifications of anyone handling an account for them. Giving carte blanche to middlemen to hire car repossession agents may no longer be an option.

Federal regulators ended a three-week hiatus by shuttering a small New Jersey thrift on Friday.

Raj Date, the deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said Friday that the agency wants to avoid creating "disincentives" for mortgage lenders and banks as part of the qualified mortgage rule.