Law and regulation

The lawmaker behind the Federal Reserve and Glass-Steagall Acts understood that unless legislation imposes specific rules, including clear limits on financial institutions' activities, we are bound to have lax regulation, excessive speculation, and crises.

President Obama is set to re-nominate Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a White House statement. Cordray was named to the post in January 2012 with a recess appointment.

A recent BankThink post bemoans the one-size-fits-all application of Basel III. But the reason capital rules have become so sweeping is that banks have become bigger, more complex and more connected to the global economy.

JPMorgan Chase, the lender that lost more than $6.2 billion last year from wrong-way bets on credit derivatives, named Cindy Armine as chief compliance officer.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Federal Trade Commission are weighing new restrictions on how debt collectors may use social media websites like those run by Facebook and Twitter to contact potential debtors.

Some of the nation's biggest lenders said that savings from firing consultants doing foreclosure reviews would largely cancel out the cost of direct compensation to borrowers.

General Electric (GE) has agreed to settle a lawsuit charging it with wrongdoing in the sale of securities backed by residential mortgages.

A lawsuit by the state's Democratic attorney general alleges that the oft-criticized mortgage assignment system deprived Kentucky of recording fees and shrouded property records in secrecy.

Following bankers' positive reaction to the bureau's QM regulation, industry observers are optimistic about the prospects for added flexibility in the QRM rules that will follow.

Flushing Financial in Lake Success, N.Y., is set to convert to a bank.

Political denial and cover-up are in the CFPB's DNA. The agency was predestined to be overbearing, which will only hurt borrowers in the long run.

Clients of the largest U.S. banks withdrew funds this month at the fastest weekly pace since the Sept. 11 attacks as a deposit-insurance program ended and customers tapped into their year-end cash hoards.

Require megabanks to pay their stealth subsidies into a reserve available only to creditors and the FDIC. Market discipline will do the rest, as shareholders demand that the banks shrink.

It seems clear that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau believes balloon mortgages are not abusive or predatory. Why, then, does the rule so restrict their use?

Nearly three years after the implementation of a landmark credit card reform bill, the CFPB faces a monumental challenge: determining whether the law helped or hurt consumers.

Banks may struggle to raise funds from insurers due to a conflict between Basel III rules for lenders and Solvency II regulation for insurers, Prudential CEO Tidjane Thiam said.

The industry trade association released the results from its simulation of an "orderly" Dodd-Frank wind-down, as well as a paper endorsing the FDIC's resolution approach.

Why haven't any senior Wall Street executives gone to jail for the financial crisis? PBS' "Frontline" is the latest mass media outlet to ask this increasingly unanswerable question.

Dwolla announced Jan. 22 that it's working with the Iowa state government to accept official payments.

The Progressive Campaign Change Committee, a liberal activist group, has recorded over 33,000 names on a petition backing Rep. Barney Frank for a temporary Senate seat.