Regulatory relief

First the House and now the Senate have included provisions in their regulatory relief bills that bankers say would go a long way toward clearing up confusion over how to treat high-volatility commercial real estate loans.

A late addition to regulatory relief legislation would direct the Federal Housing Finance Agency to review credit-scoring alternatives, but some say the provision is redundant.

Former Rep. Barney Frank rejected concerns voiced by other Democrats that a Senate bill rolling back some provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act will fuel another financial crisis.

The Senate is poised to pass the most substantial bank regulatory relief since the crisis, but any disruption of the post-crisis regime is still eclipsed by how much the bill enshrines Dodd-Frank.

“Why we think we know better or how to protect consumers in your state surprises me,” acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney told a group of state attorneys general. “I don’t think we’ll being do much of that anymore.”

Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting said reform of Community Reinvestment Act regulations is a "key element" of how regulators aim to recalibrate rules a decade after the financial crisis.

As a bipartisan regulatory relief bill approaches the finish line in the Senate, the House has mostly stood on the sidelines. But no one expects the lower chamber to just rubber-stamp the deal.

The acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can utilize "look-backs" of mortgage servicing and underwriting rules to push for significant changes.

Many in the industry applauded the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new mission statement shifting the agency's focus away from using enforcement actions as a substitute for rules of the road.

Banking regulatory agencies Thursday announced that they would raise the aggregate loan commitment threshold for syndicated loans to be included in the Shared National Credit program from $20 million to $100 million.