WASHINGTON -- Congressional Democrats have pounced on a nonpartisan government report showing the Department of Education this year is forecast to earn a record $51 billion profit off student borrowers, denouncing the Obama administration and urging for structural reforms.

Members of the House of Representatives including George Miller...

A senior Bank of England official influential in global policy debates has praised proposed U.S. legislation that would forever end the perception that the biggest banks are too big to fail, providing support for a bipartisan bill that forces the biggest American banks to either make themselves safer or shrink.

WASHINGTON -- A top Federal Reserve policymaker has raised the possibility that rising inequality may restrain economic growth for several years in a sign the central bank may be worried about the increasing gap between the rich and poor.

“In my view, the large and increasing amount of inequality in...

The U.S. regulator overseeing the derivatives market is set to retreat from an ambitious proposal that would have increased competition in the swaps market, handing victory to large banks including JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will vote Thursday on final rules that will govern a...

Two members of the Senate banking committee on Wednesday criticized excess government profits generated off loans made to student borrowers and their families, increasing pressure on Congress and the Obama administration to reform student lending programs.

“Wall Street, student loan servicers, and now the government are reaping profits at the...

The Obama administration is forecast to turn a record $51 billion profit this year from student loan borrowers, a sum greater than the earnings of the nation's most profitable companies and roughly equal to the combined net income of the four largest U.S. banks by assets.

Figures made public Tuesday...

Top officials at the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday challenged financial regulators imposing far-reaching reforms on the biggest banks, arguing that the global benefits of reform efforts must outweigh their costs.

Officials including José Viñals, financial counsellor and director of the IMF’s monetary and capital markets department, said...

University endowments and teachers’ pension funds are among big investors in Sallie Mae, the private lender that has been generating enormous profits thanks to soaring student debt and the climbing cost of education, a Huffington Post review of financial documents has revealed.

The previously unreported investments mean that education professionals...

Households struggling under the weight of student debt burdens moved one step closer to a lifeline Wednesday, after the federal consumer regulator suggested that Washington policymakers consider government-initiated loan workout and refinancing schemes for distressed borrowers.

The policy options, culled from more than 28,000 comments on a Consumer...

New York's top financial regulator is drafting new regulations designed to crack down on private-equity firms that own insurance companies, a move that threatens firms such as Apollo Global Management LLC with restrictions that could curb earnings.

Benjamin Lawsky, Department of Financial Services superintendent, said Tuesday that he was "very...

The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday urged lawmakers to reject several proposals designed to roll back existing rules governing derivatives.

Jack Lew, the new Treasury secretary, made the recommendations in letters sent to the House financial services committee ahead of a scheduled Tuesday vote on the five bipartisan bills. Versions...

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Monday he may sue Wells Fargo and Bank of America for allegedly violating the terms of last year’s multi-state mortgage settlement, despite questions over his authority to do so.

The agreement, reached by the Department of Justice, Department of Housing and Urban Development...

BOSTON -- The spate of post-financial crisis rules intended to end the perception that the largest financial institutions are “too big to fail” may ultimately fall short, necessitating even more stringent approaches, a top Federal Reserve official warned Friday.

Daniel Tarullo, the Fed governor overseeing the central bank’s supervision efforts,...

BOSTON -- The White House, long bedeviled by shortcomings in its housing programs, received two boosts Wednesday when its pick to lead a key housing agency received support from some Republican lawmakers and its approach to aiding the housing recovery was validated by an independent government agency.

Mel Watt, President...

BOSTON -- President Barack Obama will nominate Mel Watt, a longtime Democratic congressman from North Carolina, to oversee government-controlled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a move that may give the White House greater control over housing policy.

Obama will announce his nomination of Watt to lead the...

WASHINGTON -- The biggest U.S. banks may be encouraged to take excessive risks due to assumptions they’ll be rescued by the government, a potential emerging threat to financial stability, a panel of top regulators warned Thursday.

The note of caution, contained in the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s latest annual report...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. regulators led by the Treasury Department have targeted an oft-criticized benchmark interest rate as a risk to financial stability, putting further pressure on authorities overseas and the industry to discard a rate embedded in hundreds of trillions of dollars of loans and securities.

The Financial Stability Oversight...

WASHINGTON -- New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has privately criticized the Obama administration and the Department of Justice for not aggressively investigating dodgy mortgage deals that helped trigger the financial crisis, according to senators and congressional aides who met with him this month.

New York’s top prosecutor is co-chair...

WASHINGTON -- The panel of senior U.S. regulators charged with safeguarding the financial system will warn this week about risks posed by the rapidly growing amount of student debt, increasing pressure on policymakers to deal with the potential problem.

At roughly $1 trillion and rising, education loans may hamper economic...

BOSTON -- A top Federal Reserve official has raised the specter of higher capital requirements for leading banks beyond those agreed internationally, joining a small yet growing group of Washington policymakers agitating for more stringent regulation of big banks.

Jeremy Stein, a Fed governor who previously served in the Obama...