Ian McKendry

Hopes that tax reform might soften a weakening of the mortgage interest deduction were quickly dashed as the GOP plan landed a double punch on the incentive cherished by the mortgage and housing industries.

Call-report data on commercial and industrial loans does not fully capture small-business lending by smaller institutions, a recent FDIC survey suggests.

In a somewhat surprising decision, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling announced his retirement from Congress on Tuesday, but speculation immediately grew that he could fill a regulatory post.

CFPB Director Richard Cordray sent a letter to President Trump Monday asking him to veto a Republican resolution to nullify the bureau's arbitration rule.

Republicans were able to use an obscure legislative process to overturn a rule that banks and credit unions feared would raise their litigation costs.

The GOP appears to have barely enough votes to roll back the contentious CFPB rule, and floor debate was expected to begin Tuesday with a final vote possible at any time. But victory was not assured, and the fallout could be significant for all sides.

With days ticking down for lawmakers to overturn the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule, some are now questioning the statistics used to challenge the bureau’s data.

The Treasury Department released an 18-page report saying the rule would “impose extraordinary costs” including legal fees mostly for lawyers that bring class-action lawsuits.

Some housing groups are warming to an idea that they say could help more Americans benefit from housing-related subsidies than the mortgage interest deduction.

In a moment of rare unity, the Independent Community Bankers of America and National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions sent a joint letter to FHFA arguing to stop the GSEs' profit sweep.

Cybersecurity and breach notification procedures have caught the most public attention following the massive hack at Equifax, but lawmakers are also interested in the accuracy of credit reports.

Congress may soon try to limit the personal identifiable information that companies and the government can collect on consumers based on their reaction to the massive data breach at Equifax.

The National Association of Home Builders is backing off long-held support for the mortgage interest deduction in hopes that the Trump administration can deliver on its promise of lower taxes.

Though FHFA Director Mel Watt stopped short of saying he would break with a Treasury agreement that forces all profits of the GSEs to go to the government, he emphasized that it couldn’t continue indefinitely.

The groups argue that the CFPB did not properly conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the rule banning mandatory arbitration agreements and that the final product will harm, not help, consumers.

Some in the housing industry expressed concern that the plan would double the standard deduction to $24,000 for married couples and $12,000 for individuals—a move that could dramatically lessen the impact of the mortgage interest write-off.

Equifax observed an increasingly well-worn ritual of scandal-ridden firms by jettisoning CEO Richard Smith: apologize, promise to do better in the future, and sacrifice your top executive in the hopes it will ward off action by Congress and regulators.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is broadening her probe into the data breach to look at whether the company should have disclosed the breach sooner and if it plans to claw back compensation.

Democrats have strived to paint recent scandals at Wells Fargo and Equifax as prime examples of why a regulatory rule banning mandatory arbitration agreements should be upheld, but Republicans are not wavering in their campaign to overturn it.

The hearings before the Senate Banking Committee have high stakes for both companies, as lawmakers are expected to ask the CEOs whether they should be fired.