Law and regulation

A flood of overdraft cases has streamed into the Miami courtroom of U.S. District Judge Lawrence King over the past two years, but a recent ruling by panel of federal judges may have turned off the spigot.

Regulations to implement the Volcker Rule have hit the street. Now a new phase of the battle to reign-in proprietary trading by banks is at hand. If past is prologue, a tough and divisive battle looms. Meanwhile, the industry, regulators and customers will be dealing with the uncertainty that has bedeviled all concerned since Dodd-Frank was enacted.

Bankers spoke openly about their frustration with new regulations during the ABA's annual conference, with one likening it to being repeatedly punched in the head.

Reforms to Harp will remove several barriers that kept underwater homeowners from refinancing their mortgages, but analysts disagree on what kind of effect that will have on the housing market and the economy.

Rep. Scott Garrett, a New Jersey Republican who chairs the House subcommittee with jurisdiction over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, plans to unveil a comprehensive bill to reform the secondary mortgage market on Thursday.

"Stay tuned." Those were the words Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner used on CNBC last week to apprise an angry public that more bank bashing is yet to come.

Fred Joseph, Colorado's banking commissioner, said Community Banks of Colorado should have been able to sell its branches in a bid for more time to resolve its problems. But the FDIC and the Fed overruled him — and then failed the bank.

WASHINGTON - The credit union industry has been lobbying the powerful congressional committee charged with reducing the deficit, seeking to ensure that credit unions preserve their tax-exempt status.

The Obama administration and FHFA abandoned key restrictions that prevented the original Harp program from taking off, including requirements for new appraisals and limits on loan-to-value ratios.

A housing regulator and the Obama administration on Monday are set to unveil a major revamp of a home loan refinancing program aiming to enroll hundreds of thousands of borrowers whose homes have declined in value.

A U.S. district court, responding to charges by the Federal Trade Commission, found a credit repair seller in contempt for violating a previous court order that required him to stop promoting worthless credit repair products and services to consumers.

The Federal Reserve usurps authority usually held by state regulators and fails a Colorado bank.

Mark Conner, former president of FirstCity Bank of Stockbridge, Ga., pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit bank fraud and perjury, according to the Justice Department Friday. FirstCity Bank was closed in March 2009.

Right now, the government is at risk for an increased share of the reduced amount of residential mortgages that are being produced. This is another damnable result of the recent crisis. No proposed remedy for it has attracted much support. I'll suggest alternatives.

Two community banks in Georgia, and one in Florida, were closed late Friday at a cost of more than $130 million to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

When Sheila Bair thinks about regrets during her tenure as Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., she zeroes in on one word: No.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced on Oct. 18 that Craig Jarvill has become the director of the agency's Division of Finance.

Not surprisingly, Elizabeth Warren's bid to represent Massachusetts in the Senate is attracting Democratic support well beyond her small state.

Even though his nomination to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sits in limbo, some of the work Richard Cordray did as Ohio's attorney general is coming to resolution. Yet the outcome is probably not to his liking.