Law and regulation

Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher took his fight against Too Big to Fail one step further Wednesday night, laying out his plans for dismantling the industry's giants.

State and federal authorities are taking a hard look at how banks collect consumer debts. A multi-billion dollar market may be remade through tighter rules or enforcement actions.

No, the standards weren't "watered down," media hype notwithstanding. But the Basel Committee is considering a complete pass for banks with government lifelines. This would enshrine "too big to fail."

Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) will pay a combined $557 million to settle allegations they mishandled foreclosures that followed the housing crisis.

Cost control will sharpen further in 2013, given continued pressure from low interest rates and loan competition, U.S. Bancorp says. Other banks will face similar challenges.

David Stevens, president and chief executive of the Mortgage Bankers Association, highlighted several critiques of the CFPB's final QM rule during a speech on Wednesday.

Lending by bankers to business and consumers remained steady over the most recent quarter, while some districts reported stronger demand for loans than others.

The FDIC's point man on resolution planning says early submitters took the effort "seriously," but says process is still in early stages.

Examiners are starting to ask community banks for explain how their technology and staffing are prepared to handle disaster recovery.

In an interview, Morris Morgan, the federal government's point man for the painstaking review of 3.8 million mortgage loans, provided new details about the $8.5 billion deal regulators cut with 10 servicers last week and how it almost fell apart during negotiations.

After seven years at post, Sandra Thompson will step down from her position as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s supervision chief.

A new paper dredges up a tired argument against the Community Reinvestment Act, which played an important role in sustainably expanding home lending to many Americans. Let's move on already.

If a regulator overreaches its stautory authority, fails to adequately weigh costs against benefits or tries to hold the bank to arbitrary or capricious standards, you've got a case.

Shaun Donovan, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development since the beginning of President Obama's first term, is planning to stay in his job through the second term.

The ill-conceived tax act is in direct conflict with many foreign laws, and would be another hammer blow to America's fragile economy since it would dramatically reduce foreign investments.

Sandra Thompson, The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s supervision chief for the last seven years, is stepping down.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board of directors approved stricter appraisal requirements for higher-cost mortgages with the release of a final rule on Tuesday. Federal regulators have also expanded the types of loans that will be exempt from the new standards.

Dodd-Frank required mortgages with higher rates to face greater appraisal demands, but regulators have expanded the loans granted exemptions in a new final rule.

A Federal Reserve proposal to tighten regulation of foreign banks in the U.S. would also significantly expand the central bank's oversight of foreign broker-dealers, effectively snatching supervisory responsibility from the Securities and Exchange Commission in the process.

Regulatory changes to the 1099-B, 1099-K and 1042-S forms, intended to help reduce the $450 billion tax gap, will make it much more difficult to avoid penalties and tricky customer service issues.