Regulatory reform

With policymakers focused on ending Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s conservatorship, their regulator is reorganizing key units and adding staff to position itself for the long term.

With policymakers focused on ending Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s conservatorship, their regulator is reorganizing key units and adding staff to position itself for the long term.

The regulator said the investment bank and financial services company will help in the process of strengthening Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s capital standing for their eventual exit from conservatorship.

Now that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says it will scrap an unpopular standard for so-called qualified mortgages, the big question is what will take its place.

The new regulation aims to standardize the process for determining if those owning less than a quarter of a bank must comply with holding company requirements.

In another rollback of the bank trading ban, the federal agencies unveiled a plan to allow financial institutions to invest in multiple companies through certain fund structures.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said he was “comfortable” with a recent speech by Gov. Lael Brainard objecting to significant aspects of the Community Reinvestment Act plan proposed by the OCC and FDIC.

Most stakeholders agree that the Community Reinvestment Act needs to be updated, but a congressional hearing featuring the regulator leading the overhaul effort showed just how contentious the process has become.

The Financial Services Committee will also hold hearings next month on monetary policy, the CFPB and "astroturfing" worries, among other things.

An outside paper identifies the statutes, regulations and other bureaucratic realities complicating the banking agencies’ efforts to oversee and benefit from rapidly changing technology.

In the past, the agency cited the legal term in enforcement actions without stating what it meant, but Director Kathy Kraninger has sought to give the industry clearer guidance.

Regulators already finalized a rollback of the proprietary trading ban section of the rule but signaled then that their overhaul was not finished.

The comptroller of the currency stood firm in defense of his agency's proposal, saying skeptics of various parts of the draft framework do not have their facts straight.

The agency is sending a strong message that it won’t rush to end an exemption for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while also signaling longer-term changes that will affect all lenders.

Director Kathy Kraninger has told lawmakers that the agency will delay the expiration of the so-called QM patch, now set for January 2021.

The central bank’s top regulatory official laid out a comprehensive set of proposals to update how the agency supervises banks — particularly large institutions — with an eye toward improving transparency.

The agency issued a fair housing proposal last month that would perpetuate segregation and make it harder to detect discrimination.

The House Financial Services Committee chair asked two regulatory agencies about what steps they've taken to prevent fabricated comment letters as they invite the public to weigh in on Community Reinvestment Act changes.

In another sign of state officials trying to outdo the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, governors in California and New York want greater authority to license and oversee the debt collection industry.

In another sign of state officials trying to outdo the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, governors in California and New York want greater authority to license and oversee the debt collection industry.