Law and regulation

To the detriment of consumers, innovations in banking tend to be conservative, late, and incremental, despite top talent and plenty of ideas. Is regulation backfiring?

Big banks reversed a buildup in long-dated bonds over the last two quarters, a reassuring development amid worries that they might “reach for yield.”

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is warning indirect auto lenders that they could be violating fair-lending laws by not clamping down on auto dealers who often mark up the loans they issue.

A settlement between New York and the nation's largest force-placed insurer will kill bank commissions in the state and could dramatically alter the structure of the specialty insurance industry.

Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., introduced a bill Thursday that would exempt financial institutions from having to send annual private notices if the disclosures haven’t changed from the year before.

The major regional debit networks have unanimously chosen Discover's technology for a common code, or application identifier, for routing EMV debit transactions in the U.S. — but the debate isn't over yet.

Examiners are noticing more competitive pricing and instances where banks are relaxing repayment and collateral requirements.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is planning a crackdown on the interest rate markups that auto dealers add onto the cost of car loans. Although it's dealers who originate the loans, the CFPB lacks the authority to regulate them directly. Bankers fear that as a result the agency will turn its focus to holding them accountable for monitoring loans made by the dealers with whom they work.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s Vice Chairman Thomas Hoenig said in a speech Wednesday that because bankers effectively corresponded with consumers leading up to the end of the Transaction Account Guarantee program, there was little impact.

American Banker's Editor at Large Barbara Rehm has an answer to the financial industry's hot button issue of "too big to fail."

Bank regulators on Thursday sent banks revised instructions on managinge potential risks from leveraged lending.

Standard Chartered has been forced to retract comments by its chairman that the U.K. bank's laundering of hundreds of billions of dollars on behalf of Iran was inadvertent.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's annual report to Congress outlined key developments related to the department taking over primary collection agency enforcement duties from the Federal Trade Commission.

Freddie Mac and its regulator must do more to ensure loan servicers properly respond to complaints over handling of mortgages held or guaranteed by the U.S.-owned company, according to a government watchdog's audit report.

To settle a New York state probe of alleged collusion and price gouging by banks and insurers, the country's largest force-placed insurance company will lower its rates and cease making payments to banks.

A judge in New Jersey limited Spencer Savings Bank's ability to control the process for director nominations.

Money was never meant to be a method of supranational identity tracking. Its use in that way could signal law enforcement desperation. When all other tactics fail, surveil the finances.

In a little-noticed speech last month, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray laid out a new, unified way of thinking about several of the hot-button issues the agency is currently tackling.

Lawmakers and banking regulators are showing irrational exuberance, says risk management expert and veteran banker Richard J. Parsons.

Quiet financial markets permit greater leverage and risk taking, helping lower volatility further — until a large shock arrives. Then, hold on to your hats… Plus: Fed raises bar on stress tests; why the exercise is an opportunity for banks.