Legislative Reform

Congress has approved legislation that would require two agencies of the government to review the cause and effect of bank failures.

The bill (H.R. 2056) was drafted by Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) and was cosponsored by Rep. David Sco

Some Senators at a recent Banking Committee oversight hearing questioned whether the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) was doing an adequate job overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) are

Worries about regulatory overkill aren’t limited to the financial system.

Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) recently introduced the Regulatory Time-Out Act (S. 1538). Collins’s bill would provide a one-year moratorium for new regulatio

Relations between community bankers and their examiners have become so strained that Congress members have introduced two bills to protect bankers from what many see as overly strict examination practices. Both bills were on the agenda at a recent

Legislation pending on both sides of Capitol Hill would reduce the reporting burden for banks with fewer than 2,000 shareholders.

Under current law, banks and bank holding companies with 500 or more shareholders must register their securit

The Fiscal Service of the Treasury Department, Social Security Administration (SSA), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Railroad Retirement Board (RRB), and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) published an interim final rule to implement statut

Interagency appraisal and evaluation guidelines issued by federal bank regulators on December 2 explain the regulators’ minimum standards for appraisals. The guidelines incorporate the agencies’ recent supervisory issuances on appraisal practi

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted November 19 to propose three sets of new rules to implement the Dodd-Frank Act provisions.

Investment Advisers

New rules to strengthen the SEC’s oversight of investment advisers

The Federal Trade Commission issued a final rule, on November 19, to protect distressed homeowners from mortgage relief scams that have sprung up during the mortgage crisis. The rule implements provisions in the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act, as

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed measures that would require public companies to disclose additional information to investors about their short-term borrowing arrangements. The proposal is at least partly a response to fin

An Arizona bank has agreed to forfeit over $733,800 to settle federal charges that it processed payments derived from online gambling activities. The amount forfeited equaled the revenues the bank derived from processing deposits related to offsho

Federal bank regulators have issued revised interagency examination procedures for Regulation Z. The Federal Reserve announced in an August 20 Consumer Affairs Letter (CA 10-10) that the Task Force on Consumer Compliance of the Federal Financial I

There is much disagreement about the causes of the financial crisis that began in 2008, but one thing everyone agrees on — shoddy credit ratings were a big part of the problem. The federal banking regulators have now issued an advance notice of

Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) fears that portions of the Dodd-Frank Act (named partially in his honor) may be subverted by the actions or inactions of other countries. In a speech to the Atlantic Council, Dodd noted that some parts of the act

Despite intense campaigning by President Barack Obama, the Senate did not add the administration’s small business legislation to its agenda before departing for its August recess. Senate Republicans blocked consideration of the bill in a dispute

Declaring that “Reform was an obligation, never a choice,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner used a recent speech at New York University to map out the path to implementing the recently enacted Dodd-Frank Act.

“We had an obligation

The American Bankers Association warned that government price setting of interchange fees will ultimately harm consumers. The trade group called for repealing the interchange amendment that became part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Cons

The House Financial Services Committee passed legislation that would make it legal for Americans to bet online. For banks, this would repeal the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), which restricts the use of the payments system by

The Federal Reserve Board (Fed) has released the results of its first-ever Senior Credit Officer Opinion Survey on Dealer Financing Terms.

Federal and state bank and credit union supervisors have issued a joint statement to assist financial institutions and their customers affected by the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.