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.

The regulatory relief bill would raise the SIFI threshold to $250 billion of assets and allow mortgages held in portfolio to be counted as "qualified," among other items, but it is far less sweeping than institutions had hoped.

A GAO determination has effectively nullified a 2013 leveraged lending guidance. But that leaves the future uncertain about what, if anything, regulators will devise to replace it — and how banks should treat such loans in the meantime.

Lawmakers like Sen. Tim Scott may feel differently about some elements in a Senate regulatory relief bill depending on whether CFPB Director Cordray is remaining in office until his term expires in July.

House lawmakers including Jeb Hensarling are preparing to move on a series of targeted regulatory relief bills in an effort to give Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, more leeway when he tries to craft a relief measure.

The Treasury plan includes a slew of items that don’t require Congress to act, and appear feasible in the short term. Here's a guide to what changes could be made.