The Federal Financial Forum

From: Politico

By ANNA PALMER and MJ LEE

Sheila Bair isn’t going anywhere.

If anything, the former head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp has  increased her profile since exiting the agency last year promoting her tell-all  book — “Bull by the Horns” — on her time as a key figure in the financial  crisis.

“I have a right to set the record straight and make my own  contribution to the historical record about what happened,” Bair said, arguing  that much of the information on the near collapse of the financial system has  been inaccurate. “This was an extraordinary time, and people have a right to  know of the policy disagreements given the enormous amounts of government money  that were put at risk.”

By Nate Raymond

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A business lobby group has called on the U.S. Congress to regulate companies that provide financing for commercial lawsuits, describing the practice as “coercive enterprise”.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, a long-time critic of third-party litigation funders like Juridica Investments Ltd and Burford Capital Ltd, issued a report on Wednesday urging regulation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Litigation funders provide financing for lawsuits in exchange for a share of any settlement or judgment, and have been involved in cases against Chevron Corp and Apple Inc among others. If the litigant loses, it does not have to repay the financial investor.

See te attached for an indepth analysis of the Durbin Amendment written by Professor McGarity of the University of Texas.McGarity Durbin Amendment

From: Reuters

By Nick Paraskeva, Compliance Complete contributing author

The financial industry’s self-regulatory organizations (SROs) are being pressed to conduct more rigorous cost-benefit analyses of their rules, to the same standards as federal regulators. This follows recent court judgments overturning rules issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), in cases brought by the industry on grounds that the rules lacked such an analysis.

From: WSJ

By Nick Timiraos

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has blamed pending regulations for constraining mortgage lending.

Why is it so hard to get a mortgage?

It’s a question that received some attention in last Wednesday’s presidential debate when Republican nominee Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, put the blame for tight lending conditions on new regulations mandated by the Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law. He referred to a specific provision that’s known as the “qualified mortgage,” where lenders face potentially stiff penalties if they make loans without enough evidence that the borrower can afford the loan.