Law and regulation

Regulators will eventually release banks from the penalty box of formal enforcement actions. For now, banks can expect informal agreements to serve as a provisional step to freedom.

Shouldn't it be a given that an agency staffed with green examiners and tasked with enforcing new rules will communicate with banks before slapping them with regulatory orders?

In a new paper, Karen Shaw Petrou, a leading financial services analyst, outlines flaws with new capital and liquidity requirements, and offers policymakers a way to simplify the process.

WASHINGTON — Consumer advocates are calling on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to provide greater protections for prepaid debit card accounts.

The Treasury Department said Friday it netted $12.21 million from the sale of warrants to buy stock in 17 financial firms, including banks such as Maryland-based Eagle Bancorp Inc. and Indiana-based Horizon Bancorp.

The federal government could avoid many unnecessary bank failures by making targeted preferred equity investments in community banks with a Camels 3 rating.

WASHINGTON — The nominee to run the Federal Housing Administration Thursday said she opposes extending higher limits on federally-insured loans.

The former Kansas City Fed chief wins bipartisan praise for FDIC Vice Chair slot, while key senator voices support for Senate votes on three agency positions.

WASHINGTON - A group of House Democrats is pressuring Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to allow a vote on the confirmation of a director for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The Federal Reserve has banned a former executive of Security Bank in Tulsa, Okla., from the banking industry.

Regulators said Thursday that banks with more than $10 billion of assets as of June 30 will be subject to the supervision of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for at least a year.

Following an investigative report by 60 Minutes, support has grown rapidly this week for legislation that seeks to stop members of Congress from profiting from their own inside knowledge.

The study by a consumer advocacy group finds that 3.6 million households that received mortgages during the housing bubble remain at immediate risk of foreclosure.

Following nomination hearing, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee says Gruenberg, Curry and Hoenig should move "all together."

Credit-union leaders called on Congress Nov. 16 to amend required disclosures at ATMs, eliminate annual privacy notices required for members and reduce financial reporting for small credit unions as part of its next round of sought regulatory relief.

MF Global's failure is an example of how a financial firm should be able to fail and not lead to systemic risk in the financial system, St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said on CNBC Thursday.

Consumers sued a total of 498 different collection agencies and creditors in the Oct. 16-31 period, down from 597 in the first half of October, according to data from U.S. District Courts.

In the first criminal case involving robo-signing of mortgage documents, Nevada's attorney general filed charges Wednesday against two people accused of filing tens of thousands of false documents.

The Treasury and the banking industry would like nothing better than to see more credit unions convert to taxpaying banks. This is hardly going to happen if CUs perceive the OCC as an inhospitable regulator of their mutual form.

Risk management expert Clifford Rossi looks at two recently released documents on the FHA, which he says together "bear ominous warnings about a portfolio in excess of $1 trillion."