Capitol Grounds

Congress heard two different stories during the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit’s February 1 hearing on H.R. 3461 (the Financial Institutions Examination Fairness and Reform Act). Both banks and their regulators...

Given the current political climate, it was inevitable that some bank-bashing might occur as part of the theatrics surrounding this year’s State of the Union Address.

Mortgage lenders were an expected target, and President Obama did not...

The controversial recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau gave some Congressional Democrats an idea. Why not use the same method to appoint a Director for the Federal Housing Financial Authority...

Congress created a bit more drama than necessary as it dithered over whether to pass an extension of the current payroll tax reduction. The temporary reduction was to have expired Dec. 31, but Congress ultimately approved a two-month extension,...

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, has announced he will not run for reelection.  First elected to Congress in 1980, Frank said he would have quit last year, but he wanted to stay in Congress...

Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.) is urging Congress to enact stronger consumer financial protections for servicemembers. Reed’s proposal, which he says would close loopholes in existing protections, is in the form of a proposed amendment to a defense...

In testimony before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke rejected politicians’ efforts to influence monetary policy — even as he freely offered his advice on how Congress should get its own fiscal house in...

Hard on the heels of a major security breach at Citibank, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has reintroduced the Personal Privacy Data and Security Act. Similar legislation was approved by the Judiciary Committee in 2005, 2007, and 2009, but was never...

Something has to be done about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — everybody agrees on that. But what to do, that’s a trickier matter. At hearings on March 31, the House Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee began the...

Senate Banking Committee lead Republican Richard Shelby (Ala.) launched a blistering attack on what he called the “global mortgage servicing settlement” now being considered by state and federal agencies. Shelby, who made his comments at the...

There are at least two things wrong with the massive report by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. First, there are actually two versions of the report — Republican and Democratic, as the commission divided neatly along party lines. (There...

A dearth of bank lending is one of the biggest obstacles employers face right now, according to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.). But government, not banks, is primarily to blame for the lending drought. Bachus...

Four Democratic members of the House Financial Services Committee have written a letter challenging the settlements that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have reached with two big housing lenders. The settlements resolve disputes regarding the quality...

A number of Congress members from both houses and from both parties have expressed concern about the Federal Reserve Board’s proposed implementation of Dodd-Frank provisions on interchange fees (section 1075). The Fed’s proposal would...

Everyone hopes that the new Congress that convenes in January will not face the financial crises the outgoing Congress struggled with. But even if the pace of events slows a bit, the incoming members face a daunting array of difficult issues....

TARP is looking like a better deal every day. In its latest report on transactions undertaken as part of the much-maligned Troubled Asset Relief Program, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the cost to the federal government of the...

John Bowman is in an odd position at the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS). He’s the acting director of an agency that Congress ordered to be abolished, at least partly out of dissatisfaction with its performance. He is laboring to integrate...

Republicans may be champing at the bit following the November 2 mid-term election to roll back or limit the implementation of a wide range of Dodd-Frank Act provisions, but the Obama Administration’s Treasury Department is digging in its...

The switch from Democratic to Republican control of the House will make a huge difference for businesses of all types. The change in party control will affect no industry more than banks, whose issues were destined to have a high priority in the...

“Tricks and traps.” That’s a phrase Elizabeth Warren used not once but three times in the Mario Savio Memorial Lecture, “Main Street First: Fixing Broken Markets and Rebuilding the Middle Class,” which she delivered on October...