Law and regulation

Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo got credit for providing $15.4 billion relief to roughly 420,000 underwater borrowers last year, according to the settlement monitor.

Confusion and panic. Those are the words most often used by lenders when faced with the onslaught of mortgage regulations and other rules going into effect in three months. Regulators have sought to defuse concerns partly by attending industry conferences, but they have also made it clear that several other big changes are on their way. Following is a guide to what's ahead.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is planning a major facelift to its exam procedures. These changes will be designed to make the exam process faster and free up enforcement personnel to pursue their own investigations outside of the regular exams.

JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay about $100 million to settle a Commodity Futures Trading Commission probe into the bank's botched derivatives bets last year, according to people briefed on the matter.

In an effort to ease servicers' concerns about communicating with struggling or bankrupt borrowers who invoke certain legal protections, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released clarifications to its mortgage servicing rules.

WASHINGTON -- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized clarifications Tuesday to its mortgage servicing rules in an effort to ease concerns servicers had about communicating with struggling or bankrupt borrowers who invoke certain legal protections.

Consumers will have more confidence in the formal system of money transfers once they are given clear information about how much money will actually be available on the receiving end.

The National Consumer Law Center has published a blistering report on debt collections.

Monitoring fraud and deception is an immense undertaking for third-party payment processors and banks. Trying to make them into first responders to various social pathologies is a step too far.

Continued regulatory gaps in overdraft service put consumers at financial risk and potentially expose them to high, unexpected costs for little benefit.

ACA International, the largest trade group for the consumer debt collection industry, issued a statement applauding the decision by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to no longer include enforcement lawyers at routine examinations of financial institutions.

China, Switzerland, Germany and Japan are among nations close to reaching arrangements with U.S. regulators to ease the dismantling of failed banks, said Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg.

The Federal Reserve may be preparing to fine Community Trust Bancorp (CTBI) in Pikeville, Ky., for deceptive overdraft practices.

The Federal Housing Administration has joined Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in calling for mortgage lenders to temporarily postpone mortgage payments for furloughed government employees and contractors who have been affected by the shutdown.

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

Removing enforcement personnel from exams is just the start to a broad overhaul designed to make the process faster and free up personnel to pursue their own investigations outside of exams, according to Steven Antonakes, the CFPB's No. 2.

Regulators have proposed new rules that would require banks to accept private flood insurance on homes in high-risk areas.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau penalized two nonbank mortgage lenders, Mortgage Master and Washington Federal, for failure to properly comply with the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975.

Even though the U.S. payments industry's regulatory environment can be difficult for startups, there is plenty of investment being made in the market for new disruptive technologies.