General

The White House said it was ending the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) but actually extended it. Treasury Secretary Geithner promised that the extension actually would be the first step in bringing the program to a close.

The “fair value” accounting dispute continues.

The fact that TARP is now on path to be shut down didn’t stop the House from approving legislation requiring more transparency in future TARP actions.

The Oversight Panel that Congress created specifically to criticize TARP had little trouble fulfilling its function in its latest report.

Beyond our usual Washington beat (in Pittsburgh, to be exact), the G20 organization sounded off on how your bank should handle executive compensation issues.

Bankers face a three-stage compliance burden in the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009.

Congress and the President are ganging up on the credit card industry.

The Treasury Secretary says most banks are well capitalized, but impaired by legacy assets.

Government subsidies for public-private investment partnerships (PPIP) to buy toxic assets off bank balance sheets are vulnerable to fraud and need strict oversight they currently do not have, the government’s Toxic Asset Relief Program (TARP)...

What if a stress test is so stressful it kills the patient?

The Federal Trade Commission has revised its Telemarketing Sales Rule to expressly bar telemarketing calls that deliver prerecorded messages.

Lenders are helping troubled borrowers at a record pace, HOPE NOW says.

Industry measures to keep homeowners out of foreclosure are barely keeping pace with the rising rate of homeowners in trouble.  This analysis comes from the State Foreclosure Prevention Working Group, which calls for greater federal efforts.

The House Financial Services Committee worked on two bills to respond to the foreclosure crisis.  One bill passed; work on the other will resume in a few days.

The Federal Open Market Committee will disclose more information more frequently in the future.

Damned if you do and damned if you don’t? Banks can find themselves in some tricky situations because of concerns about money laundering and terrorist financing.

“No director wants the contents of his or her bank and trust accounts or … the loans extended to family member companies widely broadcast,” a banking group has told the Securities and Exchange Commission. Trade groups are paying...

Should a bank be liable when its employee makes personal use of confidential information obtained from a loan applicant? Ohio’s top court says no, but it was a close call.

The banking industry may never have been healthier than it is now, but OTS director John Reich says now is the time to pay attention to credit quality.

It’s unanimous. All of the major banking trade groups don’t like the agencies’ proposal to deal with concentrations of commercial real estate lending.