Law and regulation

U.S. Representative Barney Frank, the senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, asked the Federal Reserve to extend its examination of Capital One Financial Corp.'s acquisition of ING Direct USA.

Jeff Gerrish, a lawyer in Memphis who spends a lot of his time advocating on behalf of community banks to federal regulators, sees a thawing in banker-regulator relations, but says it is one born of fatigue rather than enlightenment.

Wells Fargo & Co. is testing a monthly fee with some customers to offset revenue losses it expects on debit card payments. It said earlier this year that it would make changes because of the Fed's decision to cap interchange rates.

Secure Vault Payments, which lets consumers spend at online merchants without disclosing their bank account details, is expanding into more financial institutions through a deal with the vendor Jwaala.

Wells Fargo & Co. likely is about to experience a flood of customer complaints as it starts to experiment with debit card fees to offset revenue losses it expects from the Federal Reserve Board’s interchange-rate cut, observes one analyst.

Last week, the Obama administration, under the leadership of FHFA, HUD and Treasury, and with the support of the Federal Reserve, announced a bold new plan to accomplish what its unsuccessful Hamp program was created to do.

Are you pushing back when you think examiners go too far? How's that working? One Ohio banker tried it, and instead of retribution he got relief.

The Texan presidential hopeful must learn to put policy over hyperbole when he speaks about Ben Bernanke or the Federal Reserve.

WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Gary Ackerman plans to introduce legislation aimed at jumpstarting the housing market by providing two new enticements to homebuyers.

After 15 years at the helm of the state regulatory group, Neil Milner will step down Sept. 1, while his long time deputy will take his place.

Those tech companies provide an allocative service with fewer employees, but they also don't have regulators and don't need retail branches. Perhaps Apple's the better benchmark.

As if the financial system needed more challenges, there is a huge one lurking that never goes away: keeping data secure. Because our current market and economic predicament has presented a barrage of other risks that are perceived as more immediate, securing customer and corporate data too often remains at the bottom of the triage list.

Deals will stall in the short term as volatility complicates stock-related transactions and creates uncertainty. But a low-rate environment will crimp growth and ultimately drive consolidation.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is claiming the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has overstepped its bounds by soliciting comments on its nonbank supervision program.

Standard Bank Ltd. in South Africa is slashing the minimum monthly repayment rate across all its credit cards to help customers manage their expenses more efficiently, the issuer announced August 11.

In a blog post, top administration official disputes media report that it has decided on the future of housing finance reform.

In comment letters to the regulators, the largest banks offered a litany of complaints about the plan, saying it fails to define key terms, is overly broad and includes some unworkable provisions.

The GOP presidential hopeful went too far in suggesting that Bernanke's policies are "treasonous."

Credit unions should get a better understanding of MasterCard’s intentions regarding supporting a two-tiered debit interchange system.

A survey of loan officers released by the Federal Reserve Board said that lending standards today are tighter for a variety of business and consumer loans than at any time since 2005.