Law and regulation

The anger against the country's biggest banks is ready to boil over, Harris Simmons, the chairman and chief executive of Zions Bancorp., warned Wednesday.

Megabanks may be able to fight off regulatory forces demanding their corporate downsizing, but a voluntary breakup may be the only way to sway public opinion their way.

Elizabeth Warren, the consumer advocate turned senator, reiterated her call on lawmakers to vote on Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray.

Canada is well ahead of the U.S. in its adoption of the EMV chip-card standard. That places BMO's Kevin Tait in a bit of a time warp, since a large part of BMO's corporate payments operations are in the U.S.

The Federal Trade Commission is recommending mobile phone carriers let consumers block the ability to charge payments directly to their phone bills and take other measures to provide more transparency in mobile carrier bill transactions.

The Office of Financial Research is seen as dark and mysterious by some, but its new director says it's focused on working collaboratively with other agencies and developing new metrics that can help it see systemic threats in real-time.

President Obama gathered chief executives from energy, finance and technology companies to emphasize the threat posed by criminal and state-sponsored hackers, which the administration regards as one of the nation's main security challenges.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee and the House Agriculture Committee is drafting a bill to address ongoing concerns with a series of cross-border swaps provisions.

Impersonators of Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin (oddly) captured the sense of renewal at the ICBA conference in Las Vegas.

Citigroup can omit from its annual meeting a question for shareholders that would require the lender to explore breaking up, the Securities and Exchange Commission said.

Rep. Randy Neugebauer, a senior member on the House Financial Services Committee, discusses his priorities for FHA reform, despite ongoing partisan bickering.

The CFPB director received a frosty reception at the ICBA conference despite remarks designed to calm bankers' fears.

The House Budget Committee released Rep. Paul Ryan's fiscal 2014 budget plan on Tuesday. The plan renews its attacks on the 2010 Dodd-Frank reform law, including its provisions for winding down large, failing banks.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chairman gave an update on the agency's community bank work and said the agency is on target to reach a statutory minimum for insurance reserves.

In a March 12 letter, Sen. Bob Corker, a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, raised concerns about whether the Financial Stability Oversight Council would wind down a healthy institution due to concerns regarding whether the bank is "too big to fail."

A region-wide department chain filed suit against Visa challenging the payment card industry standards under which the merchant was fined $13 million for a 2010 data breach.

Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., are asking Attorney General Eric Holder to clarify his admission last week about whether some financial institutions are too big to prosecute.

The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations' hearing into the "London Whale" mess at JPMorgan Chase will include a number of bank and OCC officials. Notably absent will be JPM CEO Jaime Dimon.

Global money transfer company Xoom is launching Pay Only When Received (POWR), a model through which the company does not withdraw money from a sender's bank account until the funds reach the recipient.

Former JPMorgan Chase chief investment officer Ina Drew will testify March 15 at a Senate hearing into her department's botched derivatives bet and record trading loss.