Law and regulation

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has proposed slight tweaks to help clarify mortgage rules first issued in January.

Publication of the Fed's loss estimates, required by Dodd-Frank, has banks focused on second-guessing the regulator's model, rather than the hard work of improving enterprise risk management.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Martin Gruenberg said regulators are homing in on concerns expressed by community banks in discussions on finalizing the capital rule.

The most notable quotes from American Banker stories of the previous week. Readers are encouraged to add their own observations in the Comments fields at the bottom of each slide.

New York Attorney General's office filed a lawsuit Monday against Union Workers Credit Services Inc. for false advertising and deceptive business practices from their solicitations for a pre-approved credit card.

Regulators may fault JPMorgan Chase (JPM) for failing to conduct sufficient due diligence into accounts held by the investment firm of disgraced money manager Bernard Madoff, Reuters reported Monday.

Companies that submitted initial resolution plans last year to the Fed and FDIC under Dodd-Frank must detail in their second drafts how they would address impediments to a wind-down and follow the series of steps required for bankruptcy.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's effort to gain enforcement authority over bank consultants has sparked objections from contractors who argue the agency's move threatens their independence.

Activists staged a tax-time protest against big banks that used an adaptation of the classic video game "Space Invaders."

Lawmakers have a busy schedule this week with several hearings on a variety of issues, including the independent foreclosure review and "too big to fail."

Policymakers clearly don't want to harm small banks, but it's difficult to see how they can insulate us from the macroeconomic effects of some of the proposals being considered.

Mark Zandi, the chief economist for Moody's Analytics, has emerged as a contender to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency as the White House searches for a replacement for Acting Direct Ed DeMarco, according to news reports.

Expect the rate of terminated enforcement actions to increase in coming months as more banks get a handle on their problems, industry observers say.

The Treasury Department plans to auction its holdings in eight more banks as it continues to unwind Troubled Asset Relief Program holdings.

Nearly a third of mutual thrifts recently told the American Bankers Association that their regulator lacked a good understanding of their business.

The requirement is a symptom of a larger problem: Inherently local knowledge is needed for most of the regulations tasked to regulators in Washington.

Policymakers came back from the Easter recess loaded for bear, as President Obama released his budget and Senate Democrats dug into the independent foreclosure reviews. Here are the six stories in regulation and reform that you shouldn't have missed last week.

The $1.4 billion-asset unit of First Mariner Bancorp (FMAR) said Monday that the FDIC had terminated an April 2009 cease-and-desist order requiring the bank to comply with fair-lending practices.

Iberiabank in Lafayette, La., will record a $32 million charge for the first quarter because of delays in the repayment of loans it bought from failed banks.

The Federal Reserve Board on Monday issued a proposal that would impose a fee on the biggest bank holding companies to cover expenses related to its supervisory duties.