Law and regulation

The government-sponsored enterprises' risk-sharing deals are being hailed as an innovative approach for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to offload credit exposure to private markets. But their growing popularity is raising questions about how these transactions should be reported in financial statements.

The pervasiveness of consumers' credit problems highlights why the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's upcoming short-term lending rules should avoid unintended consequences.

American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. Comments are excerpted from reader response sections of AmericanBanker.com articles and our social media platforms.

The event took place during the 2015 fiscal year, but was not separately disclosed to Congress until the agency's federally mandated annual report on information security. Even then, the FDIC provided only vague details on what happened.

Advocates for the marijuana industry fanned out across Capitol Hill on Thursday, urging lawmakers to make it easier for pot businesses to be bank customers.

More than seven months after the EMV liability shift, the majority of U.S. retail locations still haven’t upgraded their payment terminals to accept chip cards, with some small and midsize businesses citing the difficulty of getting their equipment tested and certified by appropriate organizations.

Hackers believed to be working from China accessed the computer systems of top officials at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., according to a top House lawmaker investigating the incident.

WASHINGTON — Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton joined congressional Democrats Thursday in calling on the Federal Reserve to take steps to increase the diversity among heads of the regional banks, saying the existing system has disproportionately underrepresented women and minorities.

Small-scale financial services companies such as storefront lenders and local money transmitters which use technology should have a choice of whether they are regulated by a state or federal regime.

While Donald Trump has successfully dodged laying out clear policy goals, the exchange on Twitter clearly got underneath the New York businessman's skin and may force him to provide a few more specifics ahead of the general election.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has charged a Mississippi company with refusing to disclose check-cashing fees to consumers, deceptively pressuring borrowers into taking out multiple payday loans and keeping overpayments.

Payday lenders on Wednesday pushed back against Google's plan to ban payday loan advertisements, arguing it was discriminatory and "a form of censorship."

WASHINGTON — House Republicans will likely unveil legislation within the next few weeks aimed at curbing Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regulations by giving the bureau a dual mandate, Rep. Steve Stivers said Wednesday.

A day before a top Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. official is set to testify about recent cybersecurity breaches, a leaked report shows the agency's troubles are more prevalent than previously known.

Ideas on the table for ending the too-big-to-fail problem won't work, so the only solution is a "leverage" ratio and continuous exams to ensure big banks never get in trouble in the first place.

Google said Wednesday it will ban ads for payday loans to protect its customers from what it considers deceptive and harmful financial products. The ban goes into effect on July 13.

In the latest salvo in a long-running feud over the costs of processing payments, Wal-Mart sued Visa's U.S. unit on Tuesday, saying the company wants the retailer to use a less-secure method for verifying debit cards in order to route transactions through its own networks to boost profits.

Officials from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Bangladesh Bank and payments network Swift vowed Tuesday to catch the thieves who took $81 million out of the Bangladesh central bank's account at the New York Fed.

Industry representatives swiftly rejected the Treasury Department's assertion that new legislation is needed to protect small-business owners.

If alternative small-business lenders don't get engaged in the regulatory dialogue, they risk letting a few bad apples determine their fate.