Law and regulation

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Thursday it has issued warning letters to six specialty reporting agencies for making it too difficult for consumers to find their free annual reports.

Industry groups and consumer advocates have joined forces to urge lawmakers to extend the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, warning that expiration of the 2007 law could hamper the housing recovery.

U.S. home-price gains this year weren't large enough to justify an increase in the maximum size of loans that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will purchase in 2013, the companies' regulator said today.

Consumer-focused regulations, in general, should reflect what financial products actually do, not the technicalities of who issues them or what legal status they hold.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a bulletin Thursday raising concerns that specialty consumer reporting agencies are not easily releasing free information to consumers.

Former Fannie Mae chief executive Michael Williams has been appointed to chair the board of directors of Prospect Mortgage LLC.

Federal Reserve Board Gov. Daniel Tarullo gave a glimpse of what significant policy changes U.S. regulators are considering for the supervision of large foreign banking organizations in a speech at Yale University's Law School.

Northeast Bancorp in Lewiston, Maine, has repurchased the roughly 4,200 preferred shares it issued to the Treasury Department under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The bureau could offer an X Prize, encouraging companies to solve problems through competition or invite applications from entrepreneurs and financial companies, providing those with the most promising ideas a time-limited waiver for pilot tests.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond said Margaret E. "Lyn" McDermid has been named the chief information officer for the Federal Reserve System.

International Bancshares (IBOC) in Laredo, Texas, has completed the repurchase of its remaining 131,000 shares of preferred stock issued under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The House Republican Conference elected the Texas lawmaker as the next chairman of the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday.

As policymakers mull the future of U.S. mortgage policy, Federal Housing Finance Agency chief Ed DeMarco sees a potential starting point in an entity he does not regulate: the Federal Housing Administration.

Many bankers in the New York area saw few effects from the October hurricane, while the Philadelphia area saw widespread bank and ATM closures, according to the Fed's Beige Book.

The risk profession continues to aid and abet our tendency to want to quantify everything. But understanding real life is ultimately a social, not physical, science.

Just days after the Senate's top Democrat, Harry Reid, proposed a two-year renewal to the Transaction Account Guarantee program, a leading Republican on the Senate Banking Committee came forward and said he plans to oppose the extension.

Federal Reserve Board Gov. Daniel Tarullo on Wednesday offered an early peek at significant policy changes U.S. regulators are considering for the supervision of large foreign banking organizations.

The effort to extend the Transaction Account Guarantee, which is due to expire at yearend, received a major "boost this week after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled a bill to keep it alive for another two years," writes American Banker's Joe Adler.

CardHub.com blasted the Federal Reserve Board after releasing a report evaluating what credit card issuers are required to tell their customers about possible interest rate hikes.

"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Tuesday it will amend its rule establishing new disclosures for international money transfers in a move designed to ease bankers' fears that the regulation is overburdensome," writes American Banker's Rachel Witkowski.