Banking/Financial Institutions

The final two borrowers in a multibillion settlement over shoddy foreclosure practices will start doling out money to borrowers on Friday. 

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the last two mortgage lenders in a 13-servicer agreement to arrange compensation, will make a total of $247 million in payments to more than 220,000 borrowers, the Federal Reserve reported on Monday. 

Payments will range from $300 to more than $125,000, and are going to borrowers whose homes were in the foreclosure process in 2009 and 2010 with the former subsidiaries of Goldman Sachs (Litton Loan Servicing) and Morgan Stanley (Saxon Mortgage Services).

Since the announcement of the settlement in January, House and Senate Democrats have been pressing the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Fed to release more information about why they canceled the Independent Review Process in favor of the agreement, which provides a total of $3.6 billion in cash payments to 4.2 million borrowers.

Stay-at-home spouses will have an easier time obtaining their own credit cards following updated rules issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

On Monday, the CFPB announced that it had updated existing regulations to ensure that spouses or partners that do not work outside the home would still be able to qualify for credit cards. The change came after new credit card regulations made it much more difficult for those people, lacking an income of their own, to obtain approval for credit cards. The change comes after a public outcry from those individuals and members of Congress.

“Stay-at-home spouses or partners who have access to resources that allow them to make payments on a credit card can now get their own cards,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “Today’s final rule is an example of the Bureau’s commitment to working with consumers and financial institutions in order to ensure responsible access to credit for American families.”

Facing stricter guidelines, banks will have to determine if it's worth continuing to offer the products.

When it comes to tackling big banks, these Davids are slinging rocks at the same Goliath on Wall Street.

U.S. regulators claimed progress Thursday toward shoring up weaknesses in the financial system, but warned that major threats remain. 

The said the housing sector, market vulnerabilities and threats, ranging from cyber attacks to natural disasters, would demand scrutiny from federal agencies in the coming year.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) issued its third annual report since the body’s inception in 2010. Created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, the council is largely made up of the heads of financial regulatory agencies and is tasked with tracking both regulatory progress and threats to the U.S. economy.

“The financial system is much more resilient than it was five years ago, and members of this Council have made a great deal of progress in building a safer system, including much progress over the last year,” said Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, who chairs the council.

The top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee is calling on regulators to weigh in on the worth of pending legislation that would alter the Dodd-Frank financial reform law.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) Thursday called on the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) to analyze several bills pending before the committee. The council is made up of the nation's top financial regulators, and is charged with overseeing the stability of the financial system.

"Since implementation of Title VII directly impacts the Council’s ability to effectively monitor and protect our nation’s financial system, I believe it is the incumbent upon the FSOC to provide an analysis of these derivatives proposals and share with the Committee how their enactment would affect FSOC’s statutory responsibilities to identify threats to the financial system," she said.

Sens. Brown and Vitter introduced legislation to require large banks to hold more capital in reserve.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew shot down on Thursday any notion the White House was warming to GOP plans to work around the debt limit.

Asked by Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.), if he would back a bill Republicans say would allow the Treasury to prioritize payments on debt obligations if the nation's borrowing limit were reached, Lew was adamant it was not an option.

"You cannot prioritize obligations of the federal government today without resulting in a default," he told a House Appropriations subcommittee. "There are obligations that go with being the United States of America … prioritizing pretends that you can pick and choose among the commitments and avoid defaulting.

"You will be in default if you don't extend the debt limit," he added.

How one hacked Tweet can move markets.

Twitter moves to beef up security following breach of The Associated Press's account.

Meet Janet Yellen, who could be the next Ben Bernanke.

The Fed may not be in much of a rush to exit its bond purchases.

Some companies are hiding executive pay packages when filing for bankruptcy.

Capital One and two former senior executives paid financial regulators a total of more than $3.5 million to settle charges they manipulated auto loan losses leading up to the 2008 financial crisis.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Wednesday that the U.S. bank, which reported $21.4 billion in revenue last year, understated the losses the company took from subprime auto loans that could have otherwise been a signal to the looming credit bubble burst.

Losses from Capital One’s auto finance business in the second and third quarters of 2007 vastly exceeded the company’s internal estimates, the SEC says. In financial reports, however, the bank underreported the numbers by 18 percent and 9 percent during those quarters, respectively, or by as much as $72 million and $51 million.