Law and regulation

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau won a preliminary court injunction against several companies that the agency says ran a "debt-relief scheme" that imposed "exorbitant, illegal" fees on consumers, the agency said Tuesday.

Citizens Financial Group in Providence, R.I., has named Christine Cumming, a former Federal Reserve Bank of New York executive, to its board.

The California Department of Business Oversight, which regulates financial services and products, has promoted Debie Abella to head of bank regulation and supervision.

Criminal charges don't scare big banks anymore. Perhaps the Justice Department's fresh commitment to threatening top executives with prosecution will keep them in line.

Brayden McCarthy and Jared Hecht of Fundera argue that the Small Business Borrowers' Bill of Rights, a self-regulatory document written by online small-business lenders, should serve as a template for future government regulation of the sector.

For those wondering where the Republican presidential candidates stand on key banking issues, the answer remains somewhat of a mystery.

Senator Elizabeth Warren is withdrawing her support for a Republican bill that had been on the fast track to bar the Treasury Department from selling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferred shares, according to a person familiar with the matter.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, has requested a study from the Government Accountability Office on the mandate that banks hold stock in the Federal Reserve System.

New York's banking regulator has reached an agreement with four of the banks developing an online message service to store records for potential access by regulators and other officials.

Even if the Federal Reserve decides to begin raising rates this September, banks are unlikely to get the boost they've been hoping for. That's because pent-up customer demand for attractive yields may force banks to raise deposit rates more quickly than they have projected.

The North Carolina-based BB&T is far larger than any other bank regulated by the FDIC. It should be under the supervision of an agency with more experience overseeing large banks.

Federal regulators have cited F.N.B. Corp. in Pittsburgh for violating rules to protect consumers from unwanted, automated text messages.

Under the Dodd-Frank Act, the agency must issue a proposal that would require large banks to bear the brunt of raising the DIF reserve ratio higher once it reaches a statutorily imposed minimum. With the fund rapidly increasing, the agency is likely to put out a plan by the end of 2015 — sparking a debate over what the FDIC might do.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including banks' subpar shareholder value and how big-data advocates can better communicate with critics who worry about the technology's potential discriminatory effects.

Evans Bancorp in Hamburg, N.Y., has agreed to pay $825,000 to settle a lawsuit that accused the company of mortgage redlining.

Gregory Baer, the head of regulatory policy for JPMorgan Chase, will be the next president of The Clearing House Association, the group announced Friday.

The FDIC has proposed a plan that would increase premiums for banks that use reciprocal deposits—a tool that community development financial institutions rely upon to meet credit demand in low-income communities.

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 from our social media platforms.

Two community banks — Community Bankers Trust in Richmond, Va., and Charter Financial in West Point, Ga. — have reached early terminations of loss-share agreements with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The Justice Department's announcement that it would target individual executives at banks and other companies that are being investigated for wrongdoing has sparked a debate about whether the move is actually substantive or instead just designed to boost the agency's public image.