Law and regulation

An operation that allegedly deceived consumers with false promises of nonexistent sales jobs will be banned from marketing any employment products or services under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.

The election season, already off to a fascinating start, will have an added twist for high-ranking members of the House Financial Services Committee.

There have always been regulatory impediments to the pursuit of profit, but bankers are increasingly worried about how to preserve the self-determination they have left.

The underperformance of big bank stocks last year helped restore their yields to a rough parity with smaller peers, but actual quarterly payouts remained a small fraction of pre-crisis levels.

Safety-and-soundness orders continued to abate late last year in another sign that the banking industry is regaining its balance.

Two top Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee said the CFPB should stop the collection of privileged information from banks until Congress can clarify how that information is protected.

Community banks on average seem to be losing less revenue from a lower interchange cap that first forecast. Observers caution that those banks can't get too comfortable since market forces have yet to change the landscape.

Instead of focusing on its traditional arguments that the CFPB is unaccountable, Republicans instead focused on new rules and regulations from the agency, saying it is ignoring public comments and enacting its own agenda.

WASHINGTON — The banking regulators reissued guidance on Tuesday that requires institutions to monitor all credit quality indicators for mortgage borrowers, specifically citing junior liens as a potential problem.

The Federal Reserve on Tuesday announced two enforcement actions against two banks, the Bank of Bartlett in Tennessee and Capitol City Bancshares Inc. in Atlanta.

The president has assembled a new group of state and federal law enforcers to right mortgage wrongs, but observers doubt it will leave much of a mark.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. alerted its banks Tuesday of heightened risks from working with payment processors.

Citigroup came under political fire Monday for reporting frequent flier miles as taxable income in certain circumstances. But Sen. Sherrod Brown, who blasted Citi, had to back away from the criticism after the IRS came to the aid of the banking company.

In the Federal Reserve's latest senior loan officer opinion survey, most U.S. firms said they expect improvements in asset quality in the coming year, but were less optimistic than last year.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released its first semi-annual report to Congress on Monday, outlining the steps it has taken to get the bureau off the ground in its first six months.

Republic Bancorp and the FDIC seemed to have put last year's legal tussle to rest after reaching an agreement to transfer ownership of Tennessee Commerce Bank.

The New Jersey Republican looks likely to pass his legislation through the House, but continues to face an uphill battle in the Senate.

The race for the exits is intensifying among big banks that purchase mortgages from correspondent lenders, creating liquidity issues for loan originators and radically reshaping mortgage servicing.

Under a recently-enacted law, Obama is to reduce Iranian oil revenue by punishing banks or other parties that make payments to Iran's central bank. Thus, the interbank payment system becomes a tool of American foreign policy.

In a recent speech at Osawatomie High School in Kansas, President Obama acknowledged that a strong and competitive financial industry is inextricably linked to a healthy economy. This is a message that we believe deserves greater attention by all policymakers, including the presidential aspirants.