WASHINGTON, May 21 (Reuters) – Foreign countries are being
too critical and potentially hurting delicate negotiations with
U.S. regulators over how broadly they should apply new
over-the-counter derivatives rules to trades that cut across
borders, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Tuesday.

Lew’s comments, made during testimony before the Senate
Banking Committee in a broad-ranging hearing on regulatory
issues, marked a rare occasion where he publicly waded into the
thorny debate over cross-border regulations for swaps.

By Emily Stephenson

(Reuters) – Senate Democratic leaders plan to hold a vote next week on President Barack Obama’s choice to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a Senate Democratic aide said on Wednesday, but they are not expected to muster enough votes to confirm him.

Republicans have bitterly opposed the nomination of Richard Cordray, who has been leading the consumer agency since January 2012 in a temporary position, and Democrats are not expected to gather the 60 votes that would be needed to overcome Republican objections.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Banks’ limits on how much they can borrow should be tighter than what is called for under a global pact, a top Federal Reserve official said, as calls to cut the size of the largest banks continue.

Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo said that the limit, known as a leverage ratio, may have been set too low in Basel III, a worldwide agreement aimed at making banks safer after the devastating 2007-09 financial crisis.

WASHINGTON, May 3 (Reuters) – U.S. regulators could order
the biggest banks to ramp up their capital holdings beyond what
is called for under an international agreement, a top Federal
Reserve official said on Friday.

Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo said in a speech that the
leverage ratio – which limits the amount of money a bank can
borrow to fund its business – established by the international
agreement, known as Basel III, may have been too low.

WASHINGTON, May 1 (Reuters) – Deutsche Bank AG
lashed out at a U.S. proposal to tighten oversight of foreign
banks that could force the German bank to hold far more capital
and which has drawn the ire of foreign regulators.

European bankers have been lobbying the Federal Reserve, and
Fed board member Daniel Tarullo in particular, to try to beat
back new rules that would force foreign banks to lump all their
U.S. subsidiaries under a single holding company.

WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) – Regulators should guard
against runs on the shadow banking system and watch out for
cyber attacks on banks in coming months, the top U.S. financial
stability group said on Thursday.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council, which was set up
after the 2007-2009 crisis to watch for developing threats to
the financial system, also urged a reform of market benchmarks
after a global rate-rigging scandal hit the Libor interbank
rate.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A Treasury Department official on Thursday rebuffed recent arguments that giant banks enjoy cheaper borrowing because markets think the government would bail them out in a crisis.

Mary Miller, Treasury’s undersecretary for domestic finance, said in prepared remarks for a speech at an economic conference in New York that it is not necessarily true that the biggest banks borrow more cheaply than smaller competitors can.

WASHINGTON, April 18 (Reuters) – The U.S. consumer watchdog
on Thursday called for tougher oversight of the credentials that
financial advisers use to show they are trained to work with
older Americans.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said these
financial advisers use more than 50 different credentials, some
of which they can simply buy online.

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – For the past year, a special team of U.S. bank regulators has been on a quiet mission to end the belief on Wall Street that large banks are “too big to fail.”

The team from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp has hosted more than two dozen meetings with bond investors, analysts and other stakeholders to lay out in detail how a failing firm would be liquidated.

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, April 15 (Reuters) – For the past year,
a special team of U.S. bank regulators has been on a quiet
mission to end the belief on Wall Street that large banks are
“too big to fail.”

The team from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp has hosted
more than two dozen meetings with bond investors, analysts and
other stakeholders to lay out in detail how a failing firm would
be liquidated.