Law and regulation

Ensuring the safety and soundness of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan banks is the core responsibility of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. That shouldn't change now that the president has the authority to fire the FHFA's director at will.

The European Union’s planned Green Asset Ratio, intended to reveal how much a bank lends to climate-friendly companies and projects, will offer a distorted picture of reality, according to a Bloomberg survey of some 20 major European banks.

The agreement will likely end a three-year-old dispute over allegations that the company misled borrowers by promising no hidden fees on its consumer loans.

Financial services companies are set to be exempt from a global plan to make multinational firms pay more tax to the countries where they operate, in a win for U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak.

President Joe Biden plans to meet with regulators on Monday to discuss the health of the system they oversee and how his administration’s priorities, including on climate change and inclusion, can best be addressed.

In a reversal of a Trump-era decision, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says it has the legal authority to test lenders for potential violations of a law protecting military borrowers.

Bank lobbyists are once again calling on Congress to reexamine credit unions’ tax-exempt status, this time citing the proliferation of bank acquisitions by credit unions. So far, their pleas have gone largely ignored.

According to the latest Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)’s “How America Banks” report, there is an estimated 7.1 million unbanked households in 2019. Given the record levels of unemployment, the pandemic has brought on the FDIC expects this number to rise. Join Joe Adler, American Banker’s Washington Bureau Chief and Leonard Chanin, Deputy to the Chairman of the FDIC as they discuss the FDIC’s stance on financial inclusion and how banks can get millions of unbanked Americans into the traditional banking system.

In "Antitrust," former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar offers little nuance in weighing the costs and benefits of concentrated economic power.

Banks need to innovate to compete with upstart fintechs, but fragmented and inflexible core systems are slowing digital transformation. Here’s how banks — with help from their regulators — can thrive amid the disruption.

It's in financial institutions' best interest to treat increasingly popular cryptocurrency assets the same as other financial assets held by their customers. And regulators must foster a safe environment for these assets by focusing on real risks like money laundering and terrorism finance.

The biggest U.S. banks criticized a pair of proposals designed to help consumers who don’t use their services.

During the pandemic-induced lockdowns, the Federal Reserve loosened a rule requiring banks to cap certain savings withdrawals at six per month. Some banks have since dropped ceilings and associated fees, while others have stood pat.

Binance Holdings Ltd. is under investigation by the Justice Department and IRS, ensnaring the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange in U.S. efforts to root out illicit activity that’s thrived in the red-hot but mostly unregulated market.

The banks disclosed this week that they are under scrutiny for conduct that may have harmed consumers. The timing raises questions about whether the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under President Biden is poised to bring more enforcement actions against large banks than it did under Trump-appointed Director Kathy Kraninger.

The probe is the latest example of the consumer bureau scrutinizing sales tactics at big banks following the Wells Fargo fake-accounts scandal. U.S. Bancorp said it is cooperating fully.

The fintech reached an agreement with California regulators to disclose clearly that it’s not a bank and that its services are provided through bank partnerships.

Most executives are comfortable crossing over $1 billion of assets, where more frequent exams are the biggest supervisory change. But few are eager to take on the compliance burdens that accompany the jump above $10 billion.

The online lender was not a party to the lawsuit involving the Federal Trade Commission and a payday lender, but it could emerge as one of the big winners from the Supreme Court’s decision.

Without rollbacks of existing anti-money-laundering reporting requirements, a measure designed to make Bank Secrecy Act enforcement more risk-focused would do little to ease banks' regulatory burden.