Regulatory reform

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has been leading the charge on revamping the Community Reinvestment Act, but a big unknown is whether the other two regulators charged with carrying out the law are committed to moving ahead as swiftly on a reform plan.

Sixty-four consumer groups are speaking out against a Senate measure, expected to be voted on this week, that would overturn the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's 2013 regulation on discriminatory pricing by auto lenders.

Regulators are working to reform the rule regardless of whether a House provision streamlining authority for it is approved.

Suggestions that Republicans are working to unwind Dodd-Frank could indicate a vote on a bipartisan regulatory relief bill is near.

The bill, which also exempts community banks from the trading ban named for former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker, would go a step further than the regulatory relief bill that passed the Senate.

It wouldn't be a stretch to say the legislative process surrounding regulatory relief for credit unions is akin to a political game of "Battleship."

Regulators should revise existing rules to encourage banks to offer short-term loans to customers who run into financial emergencies.

A panel of judges remained skeptical of claims by Leandra English, deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, that she is the rightful head of the agency. But they didn’t sound convinced that current acting Director Mick Mulvaney is, either.

The agencies proposed changes to the way they apply a capital backstop to the largest systemically important firms, replacing a static leverage ratio with a more dynamic ratio that takes each bank’s risk profile into account.

House Speaker Paul Ryan's decision not to seek re-election is another sign of the difficulties Republicans will likely face in holding the chamber in November, heightening pressure to move a pending regulatory relief bill as soon as possible.