Regulators

First of three parts Tiffany Lee wanted a car. She was weary of the two-hour bus ride to her job at a UCLA Health System clinic. She hated having to ask friends to drive her 7-year-old son to his asthma treatments. But as a single mother with three children, bad credit and a $27,000-a-year salary, she couldn't find a bank or dealership willing to give her a loan. Then a friend steered her to Repossess Auto Sales in Hawthorne. Another buyer might have balked at the deal she was offered.

WASHINGTON — The public won't be protected from the type of risky bets that led to the huge trading loss at JPMorgan Chase & Co. until new rules are approved to allow better monitoring of complicated derivatives transactions, two key federal regulators told a Senate committee. As it was, the heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Tuesday that they learned of the unusual trading activity that led to JPMorgan's $2.3-billion trading loss through media reports.

Anthem Blue Cross on Saturday announced it would delay until May 1 controversial price increases of up to 39% for its individual health insurance policyholders in California, but maintained its rates were fair, legal and necessary. The announcement followed a barrage of criticism in recent weeks from policyholders, consumer advocates, regulators, state legislators, members of Congress and the Obama administration. State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said Saturday that he secured an agreement with Anthem to postpone for at least two months the increases that had been set to take effect March 1 for many of the estimated 800,000 policyholders.

WASHINGTON - The consumer financial watchdog is taking aim at reloadable prepaid cards, moving to regulate a fast-growing product that has become a popular alternative to checking accounts for lower-income Americans and a new source of fees for some banks. Consumer advocates have been pushing for regulation of the cards, which look like conventional credit cards or debit cards tied to bank accounts. But the prepaid cards are not required to offer the same consumer protections, such as clear disclosure of fees and caps on losses if stolen.

A self-described credit union that advertised personal loans nationwide was not registered as a lending institution and gave a phony address, according to Pennsylvania and Michigan banking regulators. First Star Credit Union, which advertised in the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers this month, referred consumers to a toll-free phone number and a website for information on getting a loan. The company operating the website, which listed a York, Pa.

California's seven largest health plans were fined nearly $5 million in total Monday for failing to properly pay medical claims submitted by thousands of doctors and hospitals over the last three years. Insurance regulators said the companies also would pay "tens of millions of dollars" in restitution to medical providers whose claims were underpaid or incorrectly rejected. The fines cap an 18-month investigation by the California Department of Managed Health Care into the payment practices of Aetna Inc., Anthem Blue Cross of California, Blue Shield of California, Cigna Corp.

Here are some examples of recent lobbyist meetings with federal regulators, as reported on the agency websites: Citigroup: Aug 18 meeting at the Federal Reserve: Four Citi employees "raised concerns" with new derivatives legislation and explained "the importance of retaining their ability to hedge across markets. " Center on Executive Compensation: Aug 19 meeting at the Securities and Exchange Commission: The head of the industry-sponsored center presented material indicating that a new rule forcing companies to release information on executive pay "imposes substantial, costly and counterproductive regulatory burdens on employers at a time when growing the economy and encouraging job growth are top priorities.

Major U.S. banks are about to get penalized for "critical deficiencies" and shortcomings in how they handled foreclosures, a top federal regulator said Thursday at a Senate Banking Committee hearing examining the Dodd-Frank Act six months after its congressional approval. "These deficiencies have resulted in violations of state and local foreclosure laws, regulations or rules," said John Walsh, acting comptroller of the currency. Banking regulators are preparing sanctions and "remedial requirements," he said.

Despite complaints about drunken hooliganism at Dodger Stadium, state regulators rarely visit the ballpark and have issued no citations for liquor-law violations there since 1999. Fans and some police officials say that over-imbibing at Chavez Ravine has become a stubborn problem. But not to the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, the licensing authority that enforces responsible booze retailing, according to records and interviews. Davey Johnson was still managing the team when ABC last alleged a single instance of a Dodgers vendor running afoul of the rules, such as by selling to minors or inebriated adults or failing to do enough to prevent disruptive behavior due to drinking.

Did regulators move too fast in taking down Arrowhead Credit Union, as a prominent financial consultant contended? Or was the San Bernardino nonprofit heading for ruin and misrepresenting its financial condition, as a spokesman for its federal regulator said? One thing is certain: The dispute over the 152,000-member credit union shows that regulators can expect more pushback as they intensify scrutiny of the financial institutions. "The kind of [confrontational] situation we're seeing at Arrowhead can occur at other credit unions," said David Chatfield, acting chief executive of the California and Nevada Credit Union League trade group.

NEW YORK -- Securities regulators are amping up their interest in Facebook's lackluster initial public offering. Morgan Stanley may have shared an analyst's negative reports with some institutional investors but not others ahead of the social networking firm's high-profile IPO last week, according to news reports.

As Facebook shares continued their slide, regulators launched inquiries into whether privileged Wall Street insiders were alerted to the company's weakening financial projections, leading them to shun the stock or dump shares just as buying was opened to the public. Morgan Stanley, which led the Wall Street effort to bring the social network public, came under fire following reports that the bank had told some favored clients that the bank was cutting its revenue estimates for Facebook.

WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission who was championed by watchdogs for his cautious approach to nuclear power but criticized by Republicans in Congress for an overly hard-charging style has announced he will step down. Gregory Jaczko, who led the commission's efforts to protect Americans in Japan during the nuclear crisis at Fukushima and played a key role in fighting the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain as a former top aide to Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.)

State safety regulators have ordered stringent inspections of a downtown Los Angeles rail junction for the newly opened Expo Line because of a serious design flaw that poses an increased risk of train derailments. Officials of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority insist the intersection of the region's newest light rail service and the older Long Beach Blue Line at Washington Boulevard and Flower Street is safe for now because of small modifications to the tracks.

Supporters of a proposed ballot measure seeking tighter regulation of health insurance rates in California turned in 800,000 petition signatures, confident that they will qualify for the Nov. 6 election. In the coming weeks, county election offices and the California secretary of state will determine whether the measure meets the requirement for 504,760 valid signatures of registered voters. The deadline to qualify is June 28. The initiative is expected to spark an expensive campaign battle over rising health insurance rates, which have angered thousands of California consumers in recent years.

WASHINGTON - Aiming squarely at GOP critics of Wall Street reform, President Obama said Saturday that investment bank JPMorgan's stunning $2-billion loss serves as a reminder of the importance of Washington's role in preventing another financial crisis. The 2010 financial overhaul law counts among Obama's signature legislative achievements, but it continues to come under attack by Republicans in Congress and on the campaign trail, including likely presidential nominee Mitt Romney, as an example of government overreach.

  Federal regulators warned of a new scam in which so-called phantom debt collectors harass people into paying bills they don't even owe, typically preying on Americans already burdened with financial problems. Officials said Tuesday that they had shut down a Villa Park operation that they alleged in a lawsuit fraudulently collected about $5 million in phantom debts. In a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission, a court froze the assets of American Credit Crunchers, an affiliated company called Ebeeze and their owner, Varang K. Thaker.

A former commodities trader pleaded guilty Monday to threatening to kill more than 40 financial regulators, including the heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Vincent McCrudden, 50, admitted in court that he posted the threats on his company's website in December, asking for help executing his plan. His guilty plea came the day testimony was to begin in his federal trial, said his lawyer, Bruce Barket. McCrudden pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Central Islip, N.Y., to two counts of transmission of threats to injure.

U.S. auto-safety regulators are joining inquiries into a Texas garage fire that destroyed a Fisker Automotive Inc. Karma, a $103,000 plug-in electric vehicle. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sent investigators to help investigate the cause of the fire at a home in Sugar Land, Texas, that Fisker learned of May 3, Claude Harris, the agency's director of vehicle safety compliance, said Friday. "We are conducting an ongoing field inquiry for an EV incident in Texas," Harris said at a Transportation Department electric-vehicle safety forum in Washington.