Law and regulation

Senator Elizabeth Warren’s first trip to Iowa as a likely presidential candidate highlighted her fiery anti-Wall Street populism.

A bipartisan bill stirring in the Senate would prohibit lenders from mailing unsolicited checks that can immediately be converted into high-interest loans. Consumer groups call the loans predatory, but lenders say they are a lifeline for cash-strapped households.

The current deputy secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Pam Patenaude, will step down in January.

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee concluded that last year’s massive data breach at Equifax was fully preventable, but stopped short of recommending new laws aimed at averting future hacks. Democrats called the final report a “missed opportunity.”

The regulator claimed Congress has already granted it the authority to define field-of-membership areas.