Banking

A federal court ordered Bank of America to pay nearly $540.3 million for underpaying for deposit insurance. The issue stemmed from a calculation error due to a misinterpretation of a 2011 rule enacted by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The rule in question applies when calculating a federally-insured bank’s “counterparty exposure” level for the purpose of ensuring an institution’s safety and soundness. Read on »

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced an organizational restructure which entails the consolidation of its supervisory functions for large, midsize and community banks, among other changes. The announcement set off alarm bells in the community banking sector. Read on »

Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate have introduced legislation to overturn a 2024 final rule updating the process the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency uses to review proposed bank mergers. Read on »

The House passed its budget resolution, setting the stage for Congress to begin its reconciliation process, which is expected to include discussions about extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act cuts while implementing additional cuts, reducing spending, and raising the debt ceiling. Read on »

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) is considering actions banking industry professionals frequently describe as “right-sizing” the regulatory framework applied to financial institutions. During the 2025 American Bankers Association Summit in Washington, D.C., FDIC acting director French Hill discussed the potential for easing capital standards for the largest and most complex institutions, as well as the impact volatile market conditions may have on the banking sector. Read on »

With federal regulatory agencies undergoing seismic shifts in leadership and priorities, state attorneys general are ramping up supervisory and enforcement activities with respect to consumer financial protection laws. Recognizing this fact, Ballard Spahr assembled a team of attorneys whose specialties include helping financial institutions chart a course through increasingly complex state-level regulatory waters. Read on »

As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau prepares to rethink its final rule implementing small business lending requirements detailed in Sec. 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act, community banking advocates expressed support for bills requiring the bureau to delete information collected about loan applicants for the sake of privacy. Read on »

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency disclosed a data breach potentially exposing sensitive information about financial institutions in a report to Congress. The federal banking regulator said the breach stemmed from unauthorized access via “compromised email messages.” Read on »

Real estate finance professionals welcomed the reintroduction of legislation in the House and Senate aimed at eradicating the use of trigger leads in the real estate marketplace. The bills are the latest in a long series of bipartisan attempts to do so over the past half decade. Read on »

The House passed a resolution nullifying the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) final rule imposing a cap on overdraft fees charged by depository institutions. The 217-211 vote to repeal the controversial rule that would limit the maximum fee consumers could be charged for a single overdraft. Read on »