Banking/Financial Institutions

One of the top government officials charged with overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has joined the law firm Venable LLP.

The firm announced Friday that it had hired Michael Rivera, formerly the chief investigative counsel for the Special Inspector General for TARP (SIGTARP), as a partner in its Washington office. Rivera will be joining the firm's SEC and white collar defense group.

While at SIGTARP, Rivera was responsible for guiding the watch dog's investigative oversight efforts, managing over 150 investigations into fraud and misconduct under the massive bank bailout program.

“Anyone who questions whether the government successfully pursued wrongdoing related to the economic crisis need only review Mike Rivera’s resume. He led what was arguably one of the country’s most significant government investigative and prosecutorial initiatives in history,” said Geoffrey Garinther, who chairs Venable’s litigation practice group. “Mike has exceptional experience handling criminal and civil investigations, including 17 years in private practice at a major international law firm defending companies and executives facing government investigations."

An accidental early release of Fed minutes sparks concern.

Major Wall Street banks, government agencies and industry groups got the sneak peek.

Gold's reputation as the safest of investments is getting tarnished.

President Obama asks Congress to dig deeper for IMF funding in budget.

The president will huddle with the heads of major Wall Street banks today.

Big banks dive into the prepaid card market.

Two congressional Democrats are pressing federal regulators to reconsider their decision to withhold documents related shoddy foreclosures.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.) sent a letter on Wednesday to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Thomas Curry, comptroller of the currency, calling on them to provide specific documents to lawmakers that detail the widespread mortgage violations committed by more than a dozen of the nation's largest banks. 

"We have requested information about the process used to conduct this review and the extent to which violations of law were found," Cummings and Warren wrote in the letter obtained by The Hill.

"You have provided little specific information on what the review actually found, such as the number of improper foreclosures, the amount and number of instances of inflated fees, or the extent of abusive practices by each mortgage servicer."

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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have joined forces to combat identity theft.

The independent agencies on Wednesday announced new regulations that will require financial institutions and creditors to enact programs to “detect, prevent and mitigate identity theft” in existing or new accounts.

A consumer advocacy group says it’s time for the Obama administration to require that lenders modify student loans borrowers are having trouble paying back.

The National Consumer Law Center praised the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) work to assist the estimated 38 million Americans with outstanding student loans, but said loan modifications won’t be enough to solve the problem.

“Lenders that had no problem saying ‘yes’ to risky loans now have no problem saying ‘no’ when these borrowers need help. The CFPB and other regulators need to step in,” said Arielle Cohen, an attorney with the group.

Rep. Maxine Waters (Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, is willing to change the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, but only if the changes are "truly technical."

In remarks before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the liberal lawmaker presented herself as willing to work with the business lobby, but drew firm lines on how far she would be willing to go when it came to revisiting the landmark financial reform law.

Waters underlined the narrow category of Dodd-Frank changes she is willing to consider, calling it her "responsibility" to protect the bulk of the overhaul.

"I am certainly not open to wholesale revisions to the act, or receptive to packages of bills which, taken as a whole, essentially repeal its key provisions or dismantle it piece by piece," she said in prepared remarks. "There may be some room for modification in some areas. However, I strongly oppose any attempt to dismantle the main provisions of Dodd-Frank."

“Too big to fail” is a hot topic again on Capitol Hill, and Wall Street is taking note.

A trio of Republican senators are pressing lawmakers to tie student loan interest rates to U.S. Treasuries. 

Sens. Tom Coburn (Okla.), Richard Burr (N.C.), and Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) introduced legislation on Tuesday that would provide a permanent solution to the interest rate issue by requiring that all new loans be tied to the U.S. Treasury 10-year borrowing rate, which stands at 1.75 percent, plus 3 percentage points. 

"Moving to a market-driven approach will benefit both borrowers and taxpayers in the long-term,” Coburn said.  

“Temporary fixes require annual patching and do nothing to solve the real problem," he said. 

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Several Democratic senators are taking aim at interest rates and fees on a broad range of consumer loans. 

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) along with several other lawmakers, introduced a bill on Tuesday that would create an interest rate and fee cap of 36 percent for all consumer credit transactions, in an effort to end rates that can skyrocket up to 300 percent.  

"As we climb out of the worst recession in a generation, many working families continue to struggle," Durbin said. 

"For some, payday lenders offer a quick way to make ends meet, but often with devastating consequences."

A bipartisan group of senators is pressing bank regulators to hurry up and finish a rule that would tighten restrictions on the nation's biggest banks.

The group is the latest to join a growing push from Capitol Hill for regulators to take a stronger stance against the lingering issue of "too big to fail." The senators putting pressure on bank watchdogs span the political spectrum, and include Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), David Vitter (R-La.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine). 

In the letter sent Monday, the lawmakers urged regulators to move "deliberately and expeditiously" to finalize rules requiring banks to hold more capital as cushion against losses, as well as ensure that shareholders and creditors would bear the brunt of a bank's collapse instead of the American taxpayer.