Regulatory relief

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 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.

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.

As the regulatory agencies have struggled to reach a consensus, a proposal championed by Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has divided lawmakers and been assailed by community groups.

Todd Zywicki, a law professor who has sharply criticized the CFPB as an unaccountable bureaucracy, has been named chair of an agency task force identifying potential conflicts and inconsistencies in consumer finance law.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has proposed an overhaul of an Obama-era rule meant to guide local jurisdictions in how they comply with the Fair Housing Act.

The three federal agencies announced slight adjustments in the cutoffs for "small" and "intermediate small" institutions for the purposes of Community Reinvestment Act exams.

With adjustments to the post-crisis regulatory framework now complete, the Federal Reserve may begin the decade year with a focus on supervisory and examination processes.

Impeachment continues to dominate Congress, but legislation the industry seeks is still pending and the bank regulators have a full agenda. Here are the figures who will drive the policy debate.

Despite assurances by Director Kathy Kraninger that the agency is cracking down on discrimination, it hasn't filed an enforcement action or sent a Department of Justice referral on a fair-lending violation in two years.

Despite assurances by Director Kathy Kraninger that the agency is cracking down on discrimination, it hasn't sent a Department of Justice referral on a fair-lending violation in two years.

As required by last year's reg relief law, the agency is planning to raise the asset threshold for organizations conducting a stress test from $10 billion to $250 billion.

The proposal comes after years of criticism that the current policy stifles innovation and hamstrings banks' ability to raise funds.

The long-awaited proposal by the OCC and FDIC to modernize the Community Reinvestment Act would seek to make grading simpler and more transparent while allowing banks to spread loans and investments across a broader geographic area.

Chairman Jelena McWilliams previewed a proposal to update the agency’s definition of brokered funds, but also suggested steps lawmakers could take to improve the rule’s underlying statute.

The two Democratic senators said the bureau's policy could allow companies to circumvent consumer finance laws.