Law and regulation

Critics say the SEC uses too liberal a hand in granting waivers that allow firms that violate securities laws to be exempted from certain penalties. But the agency needs these waivers to adjust rules designed to be overly broad.

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Industry groups are crying foul over how a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposal to regulate prepaid cards would affect overdraft services and treat virtual currencies.

The plan by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Topeka is intended to reduce the bank's mortgage concentration risk while also providing members with a new investment opportunity

The Fed was right to aggressively lower interest rates after the 2008 crisis. But continuing with zero interest rates and quantitative easing for seven years after the crisis is in conflict with the goal of increased employment and economic growth.

A two-tiered system of regulation could encourage small banks to maintain their relationship-based business model and prevent big banks from using insured deposits to conduct risky activities.

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 social media platforms.

Trading revenues at commercial banks and thrifts took a dive in the fourth quarter but largely because of seasonal trends, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said Wednesday.

As the industry's recovery boosts hopes of new-bank activity, some are already focused on what the greater stability could mean for the embattled industrial loan company charter.

The administration's new step empowers Treasury to freeze assets of those behind attacks that harm the U.S. financial system or other "critical" infrastructures.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency appointed Richard Taft to be its next deputy comptroller for credit risk.

Federal regulators announced Tuesday they approved Wells Fargo’s process for complying with risk-based capital requirements under the “advanced approaches” framework of the international Basel III regime.

The fight over the Dodd-Frank Act's $50 billion threshold will determine whether some banks get a respite from tougher rules, but it may also shape how the industry and lawmakers think about threats to the financial system more broadly.

Atlantic Coast Financial in Jacksonville, Fla., has been released from an enforcement action that required it to improve its capital ratios.

The sweeping reforms passed in 2010 didn't bring community banks to the brink of extinction. Rather, their numbers have dwindled because of the impact of economies of scale and dormant de novo banking activity.

A growing lack of transparency between some businesses and their banking service providers threatens our ability to effectively manage money laundering and terrorist financing risk.

The financial industry and the Federal Reserve are finally on the same page about the U.S. payment system's need for speed. But achieving consensus about what the new system should look like remains a tall order.

It took a decade and a government mandate for the U.K. banking industry to develop a set of rails to transfer funds from one bank account to another in seconds.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued an enforcement action against a debt collection agency that allegedly threatened borrowers with criminal prosecution and jail time if they failed to pay extra fees for writing bounced checks.

Bank of America is asking the Justices to overturn lower-court rulings that mortgage loans with a secondary lien on a debtor's asset can be "stripped down" to zero when the collateral is completely underwater. The decision could affect an even wider range of second liens.