Law and regulation

Three former executives of a defunct debt-collection firm have pleaded guilty to charges they lied to a bank that received funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The Clearing House spent 10 months and $2 million to plan a simulation of a large bank failure — and the results are not only fascinating, they're exemplary.

Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and David Vitter, R-La., are planning to push for legislation authorizing a Government Accountability Office study that would estimate the value of the economic benefits large banks receive for being "too big to fail."

Eric Grover, partner at Intrepid Ventures, a financial services and payments consulting firm, questions why bank chieftains support the "stifling regulation" under the Dodd-Frank Act.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was questioned by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, about problems with the credit reporting system in a study the agency released last week.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may have lost billions of dollars as a result of banks' allegedly manipulating the Libor benchmark that determines the price at which banks lend to one another.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is seeking comments on how the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 has impacted consumers. The input will allow the agency to construct future proposals for new credit card rules.

Lawmakers pressed a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau official Wednesday on problems with the credit reporting system raised in a major study released by the agency last week.

In a surprise move, the Federal Housing Administration's Acting Commissioner Carol Galante sent a letter to the Tennessee senator agreeing to make major policy changes, including ending a popular reverse mortgage program for seniors.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Wednesday that it is looking for input on how it should craft future proposals establishing new rules for credit cards.

Banks have the wherewithal to weather a drop in earnings that a recession sparked by a plunge off the fiscal cliff could produce, Moody's wrote in an analysis published Monday.

Fair Debt Collection Practices Act litigation cooled far beyond an expected holiday slowdown in the latest reporting period.

Bankers are applauding the opening salvo of a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. bid to address community bank troubles. But they're also already asking what comes next.

A new study concludes the agency's basic business model puts homeowners at an unacceptably high risk of default with negative consequences for communities. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Treasury Department said that 218 banks remain in the Trouble Asset Relief Program's Capital Purchase Program, and that it expects to sell its stakes in roughly 144 banks in 2013.

2012 brought plenty of news that bankers -- and sometimes their regulators — would be happy to forget. Here's a rundown of a year in tarnished reputations and fines.

Massive regulation provides a deep moat protecting large financial institutions against competition from community banks and innovators.

UBS AG must pay about $1.5 billio) to U.S., U.K. and Swiss regulators for trying to rig global interest rates, triple the penalties levied against Barclays Plc.

A year ago we asked BankThink's regular contributors to make bold predictions about 2012. Here's a look back at their forecasts and the actual outcomes.

Bankers are applauding the opening salvo of a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. project to focus on community bank troubles, but are already looking ahead to the next phases.