News Topic: Financial Institutions

But this whole living will thing actually has a way to go -- my latest Dealbook column, up now. ... Read full article

I'm testifying before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday about the role of the government guarantee in housing finance (a/k/a wtf do we do with Fannie and Freddie). My testimony is  here . ... Read full article

I've got a Dealbook post up about an interesting dispute that has cropped up with regard to the definition of "Bankruptcy Credit Event" as used in the ISDA CDS definitions. ... Read full article

The Nevada AG is looking to reopen the 2008 AG settlement with BoA:  the AG alleges rampant and immediate non-compliance with the settlement.  The NYT coverage missed what is arguably the bigger story:  the Nevada AG came out and alleged a securitization ... Read full article

Chris Mayer, one of the authors of the refinancing plan, a version of which is currently being considered by the administration, wrote in to the comments on an earlier post , protesting my characterization of his proposal. I have no argument with Chris ... Read full article

The regional federal reserve banks are weird, hybrid creatures, both private bankers' banks and public governmental agents. This hybrid existence means that they have conflicts baked into their DNA--they are both supposed to serve and regulate their ... Read full article

As this NYT story  notes, the administration has been putting pressure on the AGs, particularly NY AG Schneiderman, for several weeks now, urging them to fall in line with the administration's hear-no-evil, see-no-evil position on MBS and servicing ... Read full article

Jean Braucher has noted the FHFA's RFI on foreclosure prevention. A huge problem with any proposal is the time to implementation for anything. It took months to develop flops like FHASecure, Hope4Homeowners, and FHAShortRefi. ... Read full article

There seems to be a cottage industry now in proposals to solve and/or mitigate systemic risk. I'm myself somewhat of a guilty party. The producers here are law profs and economists (and probably some other disciplines as well). These proposals fall ... Read full article

Story in the Detroit Free Press today here , and my commentary at Consumer Law & Policy here . ... Read full article

NY AG Eric Schneiderman came out with guns blazing in the proposed Countrywide investor settlement litigation.  It his filing intervening in the action  and suing Bank of New York Mellon for breach of fiduciary duty, persistent fraud, and violations of ... Read full article

Over the past couple of years, the Massachusetts Attorney General's office has reached settlements with a number of major banks regarding mortgage securitization. These settlements has received very little notice in the press, but I think they ... Read full article

Has anyone faced this issue? Karen Talley in my law school’s IT Department did. She received a notice from Bank of America, stating that “Your CD will be maturing soon. The account number, maturity date, and other information pertaining to your CD are ... Read full article

It goes without saying that I think the Fed did a real jerk move on the Durbin Amendment rulemaking. But the more interesting issue is why?   ... Read full article

The $8.5B dollar figure of the Bank of America settlement with a cohort of MBS investors has gotten all the attention, but I think there's a bunch of more interesting things going on than the price tag.  Still, it's hard not to talk about the ... Read full article

If anyone doubted who set the marching tune for the Federal Reserve Board, it was sure clear today. The Fed announced its final rule under the Durbin Interchange Amendment, and it was quite the handout to the big banks.   ... Read full article

Alphaville has a very important post on AIG's attempt to gross up its ROE post-bailout. ... Read full article

Yesterday's hearing -- my Dealbook on it here -- was clearly all about political posturing: the Democrats are defensive about Dodd-Frank, rightly afraid that any change to it becomes a chance to repeal or gut, while the Republicans too often veer off ... Read full article