Law and regulation

The marketplace lender's application for an industrial bank charter is under fire from small banks and progressives, who say it could violate the barrier between banking and commerce and shut out middle-class and lower-income consumers.

California Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders announced that the state's housing crisis will be at the top of their agenda when lawmakers return in August from a month-long break.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling continued the drumbeat of Republican attacks on Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray.

Supporters maintain hope that the Federal Housing Administration will revive a proposed premium cut, but a key obstacle remains: There's no one to run the agency.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's final rule to formalize guidance on a number of TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures compliance points omits an originally proposed fix for the so-called black hole that's created when a mortgage closing is delayed.

Canadian officials are working to slow a rapid rise in home prices that's being attributed to tight inventory levels in the country's largest cities and is threatening to create a housing bubble.

The House Financial Services Committee approved several bills Thursday designed to boost the private flood insurance market.

For Democrats, the scandal is a prominent symbol of big-bank misbehavior, while Republicans want to use it to show the shortcomings of the CFPB.

The Senate voted 95-4 on Tuesday to confirm Brock Long as the next head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Louisiana landlords with rental houses walloped by 2005's Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were eventually promised state help to rebuild: If they could get loans to rehab their properties, the state government would later reimburse them.