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WASHINGTON - The national bank charter may be threatened by financial reform legislation, but in recent years it has been far more popular than the state alternative. Assets held by [...]

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court in Chicago ruled Wednesday that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency exceeded its authority in 1996 by allowing KeyCorp subsidiaries in neighboring [...]

WASHINGTON - Federal regulators on Monday issued their harshest warnings yet on subprime lending. In a letter to all national banks, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said [...]

WASHINGTON - Banks are more efficient at making student loans than the government, the Department of Education's inspector general has concluded. It costs the government $17 per loan to manage [...]

WASHINGTON - Two large nonbanks have filed applications to become thrift holding companies, and the Office of Thrift Supervision approved on Friday a request by Guardian Life Insurance Co. of [...]

WASHINGTON - Bank revenue from derivatives rebounded sharply in the fourth quarter as turmoil in the capital markets subsided, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency reported Thursday. Revenue [...]

WASHINGTON - House and Senate panels are expected today to pass bankruptcy reform bills, though a veto threat issued by the White House Wednesday makes enactment uncertain. Debate began Wednesday [...]

WASHINGTON - Office of Thrift Supervision Director Ellen Seidman said Tuesday that lenders should offer a subprime mortgage where the rate falls if the borrower's creditworthiness improves. By issuing a [...]

WASHINGTON - National banks may operate Web sites and process credit card purchases over the Internet as a service for small-business customers, according to the Office of the Comptroller of [...]

Federal regulators have been remarkably quiet this year on credit quality-a topic of persistent concern since late 1996. But the lull, which may be short-lived, should not be interpreted as [...]

WASHINGTON - Banks that hold excess stock in a Federal Home Loan bank cannot be charged extra fees for doing so, the Federal Housing Finance Board decided Friday. The board [...]

WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve Board approved Wachovia Corp.'s acquisition of Interstate/Johnson Lane Inc. on Wednesday. Wachovia, based in Winston-Salem, N.C., announced in October that it would buy the Charlotte, [...]

WASHINGTON - Harris Financial Group of Troy, Mich., filed an application March 11 for a thrift charter, becoming the 48th nonbank with a request pending before the Office of Thrift [...]

WASHINGTON - A California community bank has agreed to pay $425,000 to settle charges made by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that the bank's lending practices were [...]

WASHINGTON - The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Wednesday released an analysis of the banking business in the agency's eight regions. The first-quarter editions of 'Regional Outlook' spotlight the risk [...]

WASHINGTON - The American Bankers Association will not complete the overhaul of its grassroots lobbying operation in time to affect this year's debate on financial reform. ABA president R. Scott [...]

By DAVID HARRISON Facing increased competition from federal counterparts, state banking regulators are trying to make it easier for state-chartered trust companies to operate nationwide under a common set of [...]

By David Harrison New York State said Monday it would train and hire more hedge fund specialists for its bank-examination force, and urged state regulated banks to pay more attention [...]

By DAVID HARRISON Thrift industry earnings slipped to $1.4 billion in the fourth quarter, off 36% from the third quarter and 18% from the last quarter of 1997, the Office [...]

By DAVID HARRISON Banks and thrifts, as well as consumers, would benefit if the 12 Federal Home Loan banks were put on a more equal footing with Fannie Mae and [...]

WASHINGTON Previewing guidelines on customer privacy, Comptroller of the Currency John D. Hawke Jr. said the agency will urge banks to make it easier for consumers to block distribution of [...]

WASHINGTON Banking industry trade groups stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars each year under a Clinton administration proposal to tax trade associations' investment income. The plan is part [...]

WASHINGTON Unprepared to supervise the trust activities of major financial services firms, the Office of Thrift Supervision has stopped processing charter applications from at least four large nonbanks. The unidentified [...]

WASHINGTON The Consumer Federation of America and the Credit Union National Association issued a report Tuesday that claimed consumers could earn up to $20 billion more in interest annually by [...]

Two senators who are pushing a bill to reform the Federal Home Loan Bank System have watered down their legislation, but they might not have gone far enough to appease [...]

BY David Harrison A flood of applications for new banks has led the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's overburdened Atlanta office to farm out processing work to other [...]

By DAVID HARRISON The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued guidelines Monday that are designed to reduce bank losses on emerging markets trading and loans to hedge funds. [...]

By Whiteman, David Harrison^Louis Two more states are on the lookout for new bank commissioners. In California, Walter J. Mix 3d stepped down as commissioner of financial institutions last week [...]

By David Harrison FMR Corp., the country's largest mutual fund company and the parent company of Fidelity Investments, filed an application Tuesday to launch a thrift. Fidelity Personal Trust Company [...]

By DAVID HARRISON A slew of applications for thrift charters were filed in the final days of 1998, bringing the number of nonbanks with requests pending to 42. On Dec. [...]

By Harrison, David Two California credit unions and the Polish National Alliance are the latest to seek thrift charters. The Chicago-based Alliance is a 100,000-member fraternal benefits organization that promotes [...]

By DAVID HARRISON Debate over the Federal Home Loan Bank System is expected to reach a boiling point next year as the system's regulator and the Treasury Department advocate different [...]

By DAVID HARRISON Banks are girding for battle as the government studies whether to force lenders to bid at auction for the right to make student loans. Government officials claim [...]

By DAVID HARRISON The National Association of Insurance Commissioners is hammering out deals with federal and state banking agencies that could let regulators share authority over companies that sell banking [...]

By HARRISON, DAVID Anything but a caretaker, acting Comptroller of the Currency Julie L. Williams is as driven and outspoken as any of her predecessors. In her six months as [...]

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will issue a guide for the banking industry concerning the privacy of customer information. The government office wishes to address concern over the increasing practice of consumer information sharing between various parts of one company. The guidelines are strongly recommended, but not legally binding., By HARRISON, DAVID The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, nudging banks on an increasingly prominent issue, is preparing guidance on how to handle private consumer information. Acting Comptroller [...]

By Harrison, David Stored-value cards, which let people buy things without cash, should be regulated as debit cards are, Margot Saunders, managing attorney for the National Consumer Law Center, told [...]

T. Rowe Price Associates Inc., Baltimore, has applied to the Office of Thrift Supervision to operate a savings and loan, becoming the 27th nonbank to do so. Price, the country's [...]

Baltimore investment house T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. has filed an application with the Office of Thrift Supervision to operate a savings and loan. The mutual fund giant-T. Rowe Price [...]

WASHINGTON - Still scarred by the 1980s thrift crisis, Scott M. Albinson vows that the industry will not tank on his watch. As a managing director at the Office of [...]

WASHINGTON - The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Wednesday that examiners found slightly fewer instances of risky underwriting practices during the fourth quarter and the first quarter. Three percent of [...]

WASHINGTON - Efforts to reform Federal Home Loan Bank investment policies are running into opposition from community banks. The Federal Housing Finance Board wants to limit the amount of capital [...]

WASHINGTON - Two community groups are protesting an application by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. to buy an undercapitalized thrift. The Wall Street financial powerhouse is asking the Office of Thrift [...]

WASHINGTON - For the second time, the Comptroller of the Currency has granted a banking charter to an Internet-only bank. The OCC said Thursday that it had granted a charter [...]

WASHINGTON - The Federal Trade Commission's crackdown on information brokers is likely to draw attention to a thorny question: Does the banking industry benefit from deceptive information-gathering practices? 'There are [...]

WASHINGTON - The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Tuesday issued a sweeping proposal designed to make community banks more competitive. The plan, which could ease lending limits [...]

WASHINGTON - Investment banking powerhouse Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. has filed an application with the Office of Thrift Supervision to buy a federal savings bank. Lehman is seeking to buy [...]

WASHINGTON - An industry official warned Friday that the stunning failure of the know-your-customer proposal may encourage consumer privacy advocates to attack pivotal anti-fraud laws. John Byrne, senior federal counsel [...]

WASHINGTON - While admitting that today's lending environment is brutal, Comptroller of the Currency John D. Hawke Jr. said bankers are taking too many risks. 'The challenge of today's risk [...]

WASHINGTON - Banking industry representatives have told the Treasury Department that banks should be allowed to deliver government payments through check cashing businesses without extensive regulations. 'Treasury should not prohibit [...]