Policymaking

J. Mark McWatters of the National Credit Union Administration will have no favorites among community financial institutions.

Companies like Visa and Mastercard make decisions about security in secrecy, without enough input from banks and merchants.

Criticism of payday lenders is deserved and Congress should not throw out the CFPB's short-term lending measure.

Pimco's Richard Clarida is said to be out of the running for the nomination. Other names linked to the position have been former Fed Gov. Lawrence Lindsey and Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz SE, Pimco’s parent company.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau complaints dropped last year for most of the big banks, including Wells Fargo, though they rose sharply at Capital One.

Kirsten Sutton Mork, the House Financial Services Committee's staff director, will become chief of staff at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The banking industry braced for big changes with the election of President Trump, but the financial reform law has proven its staying power over the past year.

More than 100 pending Trump administration nominees, including Fed Chair-designate Jerome Powell, must update their financial disclosures and have the White House resubmit their names for consideration by the Senate.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau featured in three of our most read articles of last year, while two others were about the disruptor Ripple. Other highlights included our annual Women in Banking package, the aftermath of the Equifax data breach and news of Amazon's possible banking plans.

The announcement Tuesday by Sen. Orrin Hatch that he will retire at the end of the year could have a ripple effect throughout the Senate, including the leadership of the Banking Committee.