Law and regulation

Prepaid card issuer MetaBank will pay $4.8 million to customers under an order from regulators in the latest fallout from a discontinued high-interest, small-balance loan product.

Prepaid card issuer MetaBank will pay $4.8 million to customers under an order from regulators, in the latest fallout from a discontinued high-interest, small-balance loan product.

The final parameters of an antitrust settlement submitted to a federal court in New York Friday by the Department of Justice promises to give merchants and cardholders more choices when paying for goods and services by preventing Visa and MasterCard from enforcing anti-steering bylaws.

Richard Cordray, the enforcement chief at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will be named to lead the new regulator, the Obama administration said Sunday.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke and Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, agree on few things, if any.

To allow members of the House Financial Services Committee to attend hearings, don't be surprised if the panel starts announcing meetings in Iowa and New Hampshire.

There is not an official scorebook to rank the financial regulatory agencies for their progress implementing the Dodd-Frank Act. But they do keep score on the softball field.

Mutual funds that invest in leveraged loans may be pulling in less new money, but banks themselves have been picking up the slack in lending, putting them in competition with institutional investors and contributing to the general froth in the market.

WASHINGTON — Two House members announced a bill Friday that would prolong the temporary increase in the size of home loans backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration.

WASHINGTON — With the one-year anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act approaching, House Republicans gave the financial-reform law a failing grade in a press conference Friday, saying that it has increased the size of government, hurt the economy and not solved the "Too Big to Fail" problem.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau likely will focus on the mortgage industry when it officially opens its doors July 21, some observers believe. And while the agency has made it known it will examine the prepaid card market, its specific intentions remains unclear.

Looking at the big picture items, it is clear there have been significant strides in some areas, while others have stalled or been ignored entirely.

Secretary of the Treasury Geithner's failed advice to the President Obama on how to solve the foreclosure crisis has apparently caused the president to reconsider prevention options.

Richard Berner, a counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, told members of a House Financial Services subcommittee that the new Office of Financial Research is "working diligently to satisfy its statutory mandates and mission."

Warren, now leading the formation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said while the new regulator reserves the right to halt marketing of financial services that are not consumer-friendly, there is no need for such a prohibition from the outset.

Moody's Investors Service said late Wednesday its decision to put the U.S. government's debt on review for possible downgrade could have implications for certain rated residential mortgage products.

The article "Fed Up with Talk, Bankers Try Reining in Regulators" really has me fed up.

What government with a population of 37 million, a GDP of $1.8 trillion and a widely derided political class has great trouble paying its debts?

WASHINGTON — The White House said Wednesday that President Obama would not sign any appropriations bill that would undermine the Dodd-Frank Act through funding limits.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers Wednesday that fixing the nation's housing finance system remains "the main piece of unfinished business" in financial regulatory policy.