Law and regulation

The Fed's approval marks the first time a prepaid card company has been allowed to buy a bank. Fed Gov. Duke objected, warning that the deal was too risky.

The new sanctions will add to a growing web of requirements facing U.S. banks, but government officials argue that the cost of compliance will be small.

Steven Horton, acting president and chief executive officer of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle, is retiring, the bank said Wednesday.

With the one-year deadline for implementing new Basel banking rules looming, Canada's model for implementing so-called nonviability contingent capital is attracting widespread interest from global regulators.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan plans to fight the use of arrest warrants by collectors, vowing in a recent interview to push judges to stop the practice and promising to pursue enforcement against companies that seek such warrants under Illinois law.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and fellow U.S. policymakers may find themselves hampered in restoring financial stability should the European debt crisis spread to America.

The central bank said it will begin a comprehensive capital analysis of 31 financial institutions, including a new round of stress testing for 19 of those banks. Such institutions must be "well prepared" to meet new international capital standards when they file capital plans next year, according to the Fed.

Banks with more than $50 billion of assets must be "well prepared" to meet new international capital standards when they file capital plans next year, according to a final rule issued by the Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday.

While banks earned $35.3 billion in the third quarter, the FDIC warned that such profits are unsustainable without greater loan growth.

This story has been updated from its original version to incude additional content.

A group of retail trade groups allege that the central bank did not properly follow the instructions of Congress when it capped interchange fees at around 21 cents per transaction.

At the end of October, the Obama Administration announced changes to the Home Affordability Refinance Program that conceivably will make as many as 2 million more homeowners eligible for refinancing over the next two years. This will lower the default risk for the government sponsored entities and their ultimate backers, the American taxpayers, and should provide some level of economic stimulus.

As Dodd-Frank regulations come into focus, critics say they're complex to the point of being unworkable. Here's a simple solution.

First Midwest Bancorp Inc. in Itasca, Ill., has completed the sale of $115 million in senior notes and will use the proceeds to exit the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

South Korea’s antitrust watchdog reportedly has launched a probe into whether banks and card networks manipulated the service fees they charge their customers, local newspaper the Korea Herald reported Nov. 20.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released new details Tuesday about the progress servicers are making in fixing problems with their foreclosure practices. The actions are required under consent orders regulators signed with the 14 largest mortgage servicers in April.

The banking industry earned $35.3 billion in the third quarter, a nearly 50% increase from the same point last year and the highest level for profits since the second quarter of 2007, according to a report released Tuesday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Bank of America Corp.'s board has been told the company could face a public enforcement action if regulators aren't satisfied with recent steps taken to strengthen the bank, said people familiar with the situation.

Consumer groups applaud agency's decision to allow more time for comment on Cap One's deal for the credit card portfolio of HSBC.

There was a hard lesson learned by many in the Occupy movement last week. When you push the so-called "establishment," they push back… with a vengeance. It was an "Iron Heel," response, with billy clubs in the ribs, pepper spray in the face and a general disregard of the right to peacefully protest.