Politics

Of the more than 30 GOP lawmakers due to retire at yearend — a historically significant level of departures for a single election — several are important to banking policy.

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

GOP Rep. Ed Royce of California said this week that he will leave Congress at the end of the year, removing his name from the list of contenders to lead the Financial Services Committee next year.

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.

The banks announced bonuses, wage hikes and charitable contributions resulting from the lower corporate tax rate enacted by Congress.

Finding a perfect candidate could be tricky. Because the New York Fed oversees banks and operates in markets, someone with Wall Street experience is ideal — yet at the same time, it’s important to find a candidate who isn’t beholden to the banks. Some advisers are pushing for a woman or a minority to be appointed.

From the identity of bankers in the 21st century to the regulatory turmoil in Washington to the huge impact of technology on the industry, readers expressed an array of strong opinions about what happened in 2017.

The credit bureau enraged many with its response to a massive data breach this fall, but closing the company down would ultimately harm consumers.

HUD Secretary Ben Carson has spent much of his first year trying to convince lenders they wouldn't be harshly penalized if FHA-guaranteed loans went bad. But he still has a ways to go.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and four other Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee are insisting on a recorded vote by the full Senate for the nomination of Brian Montgomery as Federal Housing Administration commissioner.

The legislation and public perceptions of it are expected to play a major role in 2018 elections that will determine whether Republicans retain control of Congress.