An obscure provision in the regulatory relief bill championed by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., is giving mutual holding companies hope that a threat to their business model will be eliminated.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including the merits and drawbacks of Sen. Richard Shelby's regulatory reform legislation, whether bigger banks are inherently riskier and banks' evolving interest in blockchain technology.

American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. Comments are excerpted from reader response sections of AmericanBanker.com articles and from our social media platforms.

Lawmakers on the Senate Banking Committee may still stand divided on regulatory reform, but Thursday's markup points to ongoing desire for a way forward.

The Federal Reserve Board is taking public comment on whether to require member banks to move to same-day payments after an industry group voted to mandate faster payments among the nation’s 12,000 financial institutions.

WASHINGTON — The Senate Banking Committee approved a broad regulatory reform bill Thursday on party lines, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle vowing to continue negotiations this summer.

The Senate Banking Committee approved a broad regulatory reform bill Thursday on party lines, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle vowing to continue negotiations this summer.

Despite strong rhetoric from both sides that legislative action is needed to help community banks, Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee remain divided in their approaches ahead of a markup Thursday.

ATMs have long been a target of fraudsters hoping to steal a large amount of card data from unsuspecting consumers, and the problem looks like it can only get worse before it gets better.

The proposed legislation for regulatory relief seeks to roll back critical mortgage protections put in place to prevent another housing crisis.

Visa Inc. isn't expecting a near-term financial boost from processing domestic card transactions in China, even though the doors have finally opened up to do business in the massive Chinese market.

Critics of the regulatory relief bill proposed by Sen. Richard Shelby argue that will endanger the financial system and benefit big banks. But in fact, the changes offer sensible, nonpartisan fixes to some of the biggest problems with the Dodd-Frank Act.

Lost in the debate so far over Shelby's regulatory relief bill are the significant changes it makes to the housing finance system. It essentially takes consensus elements from multiple past stabs at reform, leaving out the most controversial parts and making future reform far easier.

It took a long time, but the U.S. banking industry has finally embraced the concept of speedier payments.

The U.S. financial system has weathered several external threats in the past year, but significant hazards remain, including the potential for cyberattacks and excessive concentration of risk in central counterparties, according to a report by the Financial Stability Oversight Council.

Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee unveiled legislation Tuesday to rival a plan by the panel's GOP chairman, signaling that the partisan divide over regulatory reform isn't likely to soften ahead of a panel markup later this week.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has cited PayPal for illegally signing up consumers for online credit.

The plan calls for the implementation of two new same-day settlement windows by March 2018. Fees that banks and credit unions will pay each other to cover the cost of the upgrades have been decreased.

It's a good idea to raise the asset threshold at which financial institutions are automatically designated as systemically important financial institutions. But Sen. Richard Shelby's proposed legislation for regulatory relief does require one crucial change.

If Verifone wants to benefit from the major card brands' efforts to operate in China, it must confront a virtual army of independent sales organizations already selling low-cost payment terminals.