Law and regulation

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week.

Two officials of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau who played important roles in shaping the new mortgage rules have joined Wells Fargo.

Zions Bancorporation, which failed the Federal Reserve's annual stress test, deferred giving Chief Executive Officer Harris Simmons a cash bonus until after the bank learns the results of its resubmission.

The American Bankers Association recommended several fixes to a bill to overhaul the mortgage finance market pending in the Senate Banking Committee.

In the old days the Fed's monetary policy and bank supervision were separate sides of the house. But its postcrisis capital rules for banks are blurring those boundaries.

The Federal Reserve prohibited a former Missouri bank chairman from involvement in any bank management after he admitted to using federal bailout money to buy a luxury condominium.

Former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair took private investors to task this week, arguing that their failure to understand and manage mortgage-market risk helped bring about the financial crisis.

Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) isn't giving up on the small-dollar loan market, Chief Executive Kevin Kabat said Thursday.

WASHINGTON — Two officials of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau who played important roles in shaping the new mortgage rules have joined Wells Fargo (WFC).

Without meaningful transparency on banks’ financial reports, regulatory capital ratios and living wills, anyone writing about bank earnings is a willing actor in banks’ quarterly earnings Kabuki theater.

American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. As excerpted from the Comments sections of AmericanBanker.com articles.

Under its aggressive quantitative easing program, the Fed is borrowing short-term and investing long-term, exposing itself to severe interest rate risk when short-term rates rise, writes former Fed economist Scott Hein.

American Express' joint travel venture may get delayed as it awaits regulatory approval, CFO Jeff Campbell told investors Jan 16.

WASHINGTON — Good bank supervision is the best wait to limit risks to the financial system, but monetary policy can be used to promote stability in rare instances, Federal Reserve Gov. Jeremy Stein said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry said his agency is increasingly concerned about the cybersecurity risks from banks relying too much on certain vendors and using service providers in foreign countries.

As drafted, the Johnson-Crapo bill would allow big banks to originate, aggregate, and guarantee mortgages. Small lenders worry such vertically integrated companies could price them out of the business.

Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., urged regulators on Wednesday to tighten restrictions on banks involved in physical commodities markets.

Bank of America Corp. is paying $950 million to settle claims that its Countrywide unit pooled faulty mortgages into securities that helped hobble Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. and saddled buyers with losses.

Demand for loans by consumers and businesses grew in the first quarter, according to a Federal Reserve report released Wednesday.

The Obama administration is urging activists like the National Council of La Raza to support legislation to overhaul the housing finance market, ahead of a Senate Banking Committee vote scheduled for late April.