bank regulation

In order to avoid new federal rules and heightened scrutiny from regulators, MetLife has decided to sell its banking unit. That's a smart move for the nation's largest life insurer, and keeps it on a level playing field with its competitors.

A judge ruled that Wells Fargo has to pay its customers restitution for processing checking-account transactions in a way that makes the most charges bounce and maximizes overdraft fees. Other banks have also been sued over this issue.

Some pros are aiming straight at the eye of the financial hurricane, buying into the besieged banks. Here's why: The uncertainty threatening them has dissipated, and banks will now start looking for new ways to profit from the new rules.

Supporters and critics -- some of whom say the proposed Consumer Protection Financial Bureau is too weak and others who say it's plain wrong -- are lining up to press their respective cases.

Dodd's soon-to-be-unveiled proposal appears to have a fatal flaw: It enshrines the notion that it's good to have banks that are Too Big to Fail (TBTF). It'll likely propose an alphabet soup of regulators who'll be infighting too much to notice when a giant bank is about to blow.

In what may be welcome news to its customers, Bank of America says it will end overdraft fees on debit cards. But there's also a downside: Cardholders will no longer be able to get away with spending more than they have on deposit in their accounts.

Five former Treasury Secretaries who served in both Democratic and Republicans administrations are urging Congress to enact regulations that would prohibit commercial banks from engaging in certain risky activities. Can they outweigh lobbying by financial interests?

The House finally passed its financial regulatory reform bill today by a 21-vote margin. Apparently, there are 202 members of the House, Republicans and Democrats, who aren't interested in clamping down on the too-big-to-fail financials that helped to get us into this mess. While there are a lot of...