News Topic: law-regulation

Restoring consumer confidence in financial services won't be easy after the latest banking brouhaha, but the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can help by proactively holding all mortgage loan officers to the same federal licensing standard. ... Read full article

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's proposal not only requires lenders to determine a borrower's ability to repay, but also forces creditors to follow the bureau's approach to making that determination. ... Read full article

The bad-news stories about the largest institutions are worrisome in light of housing finance proposals that could benefit the big banks even more. ... Read full article

The staff at the Securities and Exchange Commission is working on a proposal to amend the current diversity disclosure rule to require more specificity, including information on the race, gender and ethnicity of board members and nominees. Here's ... Read full article

A compliance-at-all-cost mentality, which is the overarching attitude in many banks, results in overspending and overallocating valuable resources to meet both real and perceived compliance standards. ... Read full article

The Wells Fargo scandal is more reason for officials to tighten policy on anti-tying measures to put a stop to overly aggressive sales methods. ... Read full article

In 2010, lawmakers passed reforms to bring transparency and competition to a swipe fee market that had been devoid of both. Now, they want to undo that progress. ... Read full article

The rampant unethical behavior at Wells Fargo suggests that bankers' ethics are still fundamentally awry eight years after the mortgage meltdown. ... Read full article

Contrary to expectations about growing mortgage lending volumes, current industry trends suggest a gradual reduction in capacity for both lending and servicing that should alarm policymakers. ... Read full article

Compensation rules mandated by Dodd-Frank is a potential tool to make executives accountable for misconduct like the Wells Fargo scandal, if regulators are willing to use it. ... Read full article

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can determine nearly anything to be an unfair, deceptive or abusive act or practice, and it's more likely to do so when lenders try to take advantage of regulatory loopholes. ... Read full article

Unlike Wells Fargo's unauthorized account openings, concerns in 2003 about banks discounting rates on loans in exchange for customers buying investment-banking products were less about consumer protection than the potential harm to credit quality and ... Read full article

With the risk-taking culture at big banks Â-- including that which contributed to the Wells Fargo fiasco Â-- it's a good thing the House bill to weaken Dodd-Frank will never become law. ... Read full article

New recommendations by the Federal Reserve Board are a crucial step in the direction of much-needed restructuring of the U.S. financial sector. ... Read full article

While the retail lobby won in the political arena and successfully decreased its costs through price-fixing, the biggest loser in this situation was the American consumer. ... Read full article

As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposes new small-dollar lending rules, it has also sought comment on an alternative plan that would open the door to banks providing more lower-income credit solutions. ... Read full article

The alleged practices at the heart of Well Fargo's settlement were fueled by a short-term incentive system that is detached from broader goals. ... Read full article

Heightened risk management standards and the "three lines of defense" are supposed to help banks ward off scandal, but they failed miserably. ... Read full article