Big U.S. banks are working behind the scenes to ease tensions with a new federal consumer regulator whose approach to policing the financial sector has triggered industry criticism, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Top compliance executives from more than 20 banks, including Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc., have met privately in recent months with senior officials from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to convey their concerns, including that companies weren't getting much credit for cooperating with investigations. Last week, the CFPB gave the industry some relief when it published "responsible conduct" guidelines detailing how financial firms can help with the agency's investigations in exchange for smaller penalties. Later in the week, the CFPB rewarded the cooperation of U.S. Bancorp by not fining the Minneapolis bank in an auto-lending settlement. The bank didn't admit or deny wrongdoing.
