Law and regulation

Former Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler and KeyBank NA executive Don Graves have been tapped to examine financial regulators as part of Joe Biden’s presidential transition, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Monday announced he will extend the eviction moratorium — set to expire Oct. 1 — to next year, continuing protections for tenants as well as homeowners who have been unable to pay rent and mortgage during the public health crisis.

Bankers and fintech executives want lawmakers returning to Washington to focus on streamlined forgiveness and a second round of Paycheck Protection Program loans for small businesses.

The company has now filed three lawsuits in its bid to recoup nearly $900 million it inadvertently sent to the cosmetic company's creditors.

Under the agreement, fintechs and their bank partners will have a safe legal harbor to offer loans, as long as their interest rates do not exceed 36% and they meet various other standards.

A new CFPB rule will expedite the forbearance and loss-mitigation process for consumers suffering financial hardship from the pandemic.

The changes being sought would benefit both small businesses and banks, which would avoid the cost of servicing many low-yielding loans.

The agencies produced an application process that includes favorable interpretation of qualifying expenses.

The group that worked with the Fed to devise an alternative rate to Libor rejects criticism that the index favors megabanks.

The Small Business Administration stopped approving loans when the Paycheck Protection Program hit its cap.

Homeowners reeling from coronavirus-induced economic shock are already enduring extremely long wait times while trying to get relief. Legislation passed last week could worsen the logjams.

The regulation issued late on Tuesday directs state-regulated financial institutions to give mortgage borrowers at least 90 days of forbearance if they can show financial hardship resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. It also requires banks and credit unions to provide relief on ATM fees and credit card late payment fees.

Regulators' decision to delay reporting for troubled-debt restructurings should allow banks and credit unions to be more nimble modifying loans impaired by the coronavirus outbreak.

In a letter to CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger, the Democratic senators argue that task force members cannot be trusted to protect consumers because they have represented payday lenders or Wall Street banks, or worked at law firms that did so.

Nonbanks hold a disproportionate percentage of the worst-rated loans, but banks hold a majority of the market, and risk management safeguards are largely untested, according to an interagency report on shared national credit.

Todd Zywicki, a law professor who has sharply criticized the CFPB as an unaccountable bureaucracy, has been named chair of an agency task force identifying potential conflicts and inconsistencies in consumer finance law.

The state has proposed a law to cap the interest rate on certain consumer loans, but nonbanks aim to skirt it by seeking a rent-a-charter.

Federal and state policymakers wagged their fingers this week at high-cost lenders that might be looking to team with banks to evade a 36% ceiling on interest rates.

Alternative data "may improve the speed and accuracy of credit decisions and may help firms evaluate the creditworthiness of consumers," the agencies said.

The nonbank share of large mortgage servicing is growing, but smaller players tend to be depositories, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found in a new report aimed at examining regulatory impacts.