Law and regulation

The law firm Ballard Spahr announced Monday that it has added a new mortgage banking practice, tapping three partners and one associate from Patton Boggs.

HSBC Holdings PLC was slapped with the biggest retail fine to date by the U.K. Financial Services Authority after the regulator found it sold unsuitable products to elderly customers.

Massachusetts sued Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup Inc. and GMAC late last week over deceptive foreclosure practices such as robosigning documents.

The war over interchange between merchants and the payments industry continues. That's not surprising with tens of billions of dollars being allocated by Washington rather than the market in question.

The Treasury Department sent a letter to the nearly 400 banks still in the program attempting to chart a path toward the exit.

A mix of personal and professional reasons pushed the former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee to retire.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner called on the Senate Thursday to act soon to confirm a director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Senate Democrats may hold a vote as early as next week.

"There can be little doubt that financial stability issues have risen to the top of the agenda for the major central banks."

In testimony before Congress, Shaun Donovan acknowledges that FHA's reserves could be depleted if housing prices keep falling. But he says the agency has tools available to shore up its financial condition, if they become necessary.

Two regulators-turned-consultants, invoking a famous Ronald Reagan quote, are really "here to help" this time.

With customers awaiting claims stemming from bankruptcy of derivatives firm, lawmakers urge tougher rules on segregating funds.

The CFPB, Treasury, and SIGTARP have formed a task force to target mortgage modification scams.

Rep. Barney Frank, the lead Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, said he doesn't see Republicans budging on their demands for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau any time soon, and expects that the confirmation of its first director will depend on the election next year.

Total lawsuits filed in the U.S. this year citing alleged Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) violations reached 10,402 through mid-October, well ahead of last year's pace when the 10,000 mark was reached on Dec. 1, according to WebRecon LLC, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based company that tracks the data from the courts.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley on Thursday sued five national mortgage lenders — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial — alleging their foreclosure practices were unlawful and deceptive.

The Federal Trade Commission this week is sending an estimated $90,000 in total refunds to 2,900 victims of a company that allegedly marketed worthless debt management services, before being found in contempt for violating a court order barring its activities.

Jimmy Didden of National Capitol doesn't believe that intense regulation of the big banks will make the system or the economy any stronger.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau lacks leadership at the moment, but not direction. Although Elizabeth Warren has left and Richard Cordray has yet to be confirmed, their laundry list is extensive and they're getting down to business.

The CFPB can work to safeguard checking account holders by setting regulations around the disclosure of fees and overdraft options. No matter how uniformity is reached, it will enhance competition and make the market run more efficiently.

Banks launched later in the decade, whose ramps to profitability lagged their predecessors’, provide a cautionary tale about headwinds that can emerge in an unstable economy, and the dangers of piling into a strategy based on brokered deposits and real estate lending.