Law and regulation

A U.S. housing regulator plans new steps to encourage banks to lend to buyers with less than-perfect credit scores, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Many lenders think home loans are off-limits for undocumented immigrants because they lack Social Security numbers, but higher-cost loans using borrowers' individual taxpayer identification numbers are available and being made by a handful of firms.

An executive order signed by President Obama on Friday that mandated the adoption of chip-and-PIN technology in government cards and enabled its use in facilities like post offices smacks of politics over substance, analysts said.

The Federal Reserve Board issued a final rule Friday that will give banks an additional three months to comply with stress test requirements.

Richard Hunt of the Consumer Bankers Association explains the industry's beef with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau complaint portal – particularly the agency's proposal to include "narratives" in the information published.

As the CFPB focuses on the screening processes that banks use to vet checking account applications, regulators should try to maintain a balance between safety and soundness concerns and consumer protection.

The White House is slated to unveil a major package of initiatives on Friday to increase data security for financial transactions, including an executive order to add chip-and-PIN technology to government-issued credit and debit cards.

Congress and banking agencies should seize the opportunity to eliminate unnecessary and outdated requirements.

Bitcoin adopters in Ohio have been some of the most vocal about how state laws need to evolve to encourage the use of digital currency, but the Ohio government seems to want that change to come from the courts rather than the legislature.

The Obama administration is pushing to ease access to mortgage credit, particularly for first-time homebuyers, but it doesn't appear likely it will employ one of its most readily available tools.

The student lending industry argues that the problems the CFPB is finding in the market are more related to federal loans than private ones and disagree with the agency's push to allow student loans to be charged off in bankruptcy.

Although Congress may soon tackle whether to raise the $50 billion "systemic" threshold for banks, First Republic CEO James Herbert says the bank must still invest heavily in hiring the necessary staff to help it deal with the additional regulation from such a designation.

Assistant Treasury Secretary Daniel Glaser says his department is working with the federal banking agencies to ease banks' fears about serving foreign remittance providers.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said he favors size limits for financial institutions to help boost stability.

Banks have never before had to establish policies and procedures at the granular level required under the new Volcker Rule. Doing so in a timely manner will be a challenge for most banks. For some, it will be impossible.

Politicians must acknowledge the unintentionally harmful consequences of the Dodd-Frank Act, while bankers need to accept that the financial system has deficiencies and act to remedy the problems under their control.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is urging policymakers to reconsider how student loan debt is treated under the bankruptcy code.

Demand for commercial real estate and business loans continued to rebound in many regions of the country over the past six weeks, the Federal Reserve Board said Wednesday.

TD Bank will pay $850,000 as part of a multistate settlement related to a 2012 data breach, New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Wednesday.

A principles document on corporate governance from the international Basel Committee is another sign of supervisors' mounting interest in how management culture affects business decisions.