Regulators

Baltimore County auto insurance salesman Hal Katz is known for his offbeat television commercials, such as the one with the rapper singing, "Hey, Hal, you're the best!" Maryland insurance regulators likely would disagree. The Maryland Insurance Administration has been investigating Katz and his companies in the past several months over the alleged mishandling of premiums and use of unlicensed agents. Last week, Baltimore City Circuit Court placed two of his companies — Interstate Auto Insurance Co. and Katz's Insurance Agency — into receivership.

State regulators have ordered a South Dakota-based payday lender to stop making consumer loans in Maryland after finding the company used predatory tactics and charged excessive interest rates. Western Sky Financial, located on a reservation in Timber Lake, S.D., has said it was not required to follow Maryland law because of tribal immunity, according to the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. The labor department's Division of Financial Regulation said Thursday it has issued a final cease and desist order against Western Sky, its owner Martin Webb and other related parties.

The Federal Reserve announced Tuesday that Patapsco Bancorp of Dundalk has agreed to take steps to maintain the soundness of the company and its Patapsco Bank subsidiary The company and the bank must submit plans showing how they will sustain sufficient capital, improve the bank's earnings, strengthen board oversight of management and operations, and reduce problem assets and exposure to commercial real estate. The company also can't declare dividends or borrow any money without regulators' approval.

Older consumers are no more vulnerable to identity theft than others, but they do tend to be victims of the types of ID theft that are on the rise - cases involving tax returns and medical care. For that reason, the Federal Trade Commission held a one-day workshop last month on senior identity theft. And Howard County on Thursday evening is holding an identity theft forum that will cover fraud directed at both seniors and children. "Seniors are targeted because they have more disposable income," said Rebecca Bowman, administrator of Howard County's Office of Consumer Affairs, which is sponsoring the forum.

Talbot Bank of Easton, Maryland said Friday it has entered into a consent order with federal and state regulators. That order from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Commissioner of Financial Regulation of Maryland requires the bank to improve its credit quality and revise some of its policies and procedures, the bank said. "No bank has been immune from the challenges created by the economic downturn," CEO Patrick M. Bilbrough said in a statement. "As we deal with those challenges, we are working closely with the FDIC and the commissioner to make sure that we handle these challenges in the correct way in a timely manner.

First Mariner Bancorp Chairman and CEO Edwin F. Hale Sr. said Friday that the company is continuing to try to raise capital and to work with regulators who have put the largest Baltimore-based bank under heightened scrutiny for two years. Hale was responding to an auditor's letter that casts doubt about the bank holding company's ability to remain in business. The letter was included with financial statements filed Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. A prominent businessman who founded First Mariner, Hale said the auditor's "going concern" warning had long been expected.

Some banks soon will find it more difficult to slap consumers with overdraft fees — a boon to customers who discover that one misstep can lead to a cascade of penalties. Guidelines that take effect next month will prohibit thousands of small banks from processing transactions in order of the highest dollar amount to lowest — a practice that empties customer accounts faster and triggers more overdrafts. Similar guidelines could be in store for the big players, too. And one major bank, Citibank, announced recently that it would no longer process paper checks from high to low — a move that could encourage competitors to follow suit.

Weeks before federal trucking regulators ordered Gunthers Transport LLC off the road for being an "imminent hazard" to the public, the owner's son filed the paperwork to create a new entity: Clock Transport LLC. The new trucking company, which shares the Hanover address of Gunthers Transport, was cited for a safety violation last month. One of its trucks failed an inspection in Ohio, which sidelined the vehicle and driver until the problems were fixed. Maryland State Police said Monday that their troopers have been ordered to pull over and inspect trucks bearing either name.

Constellation Energy Group filed an application Wednesday with Maryland energy regulators to seek approval of its sale to Chicago-based Exelon Corp. In a 572-page application, Constellation and Exelon make their case for the $7.9 billion deal, which would create the largest competitive power supplier in the United States. The combined company would have headquarters in Chicago, but officials say the new entity would have a significant presence in Baltimore. The two companies have offered a $250 million incentive package, which includes a $100 credit for each customer of Constellation's regulated utility, Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. The Maryland Public Service Commission is expected to hold hearings to examine the deal; it has 180 days under state law to make a decision.

Maryland regulators, after receiving a slew of consumer questions in the wake of a major debt collector's collapse, have sent letters to every collection agency operating in the state to try to connect anxious debtors with the companies they owe. Rockville-based Mann Bracken, which abruptly shut its doors after the recent bankruptcy of a spinoff company that handled its nonlegal work, used to collect payments from consumers on behalf of firms that...

Federal regulators and state police plan a wide-ranging review of the waste-removal company owned by the trucker seriously hurt when a CSX train collided with his truck at a crossing. The company, Alban Waste, had been flagged in the past for safety violations. Because of Tuesday's accident in Rosedale, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and state police plan a top-to-bottom compliance audit. Officials said they would vet the trucking company, its drivers and vehicles for any violations that had gone undetected in previous reviews.

At one point during the three years that Harbor Bank of Maryland operated under heightened federal scrutiny, a regulator asked CEO Joseph Haskins Jr. why he stuck it out. Why not just retire? But for Haskins, one of the founders of the Baltimore bank in 1982, walking away was not an option. "I've grown up not running from a challenge, but facing it head on and looking to find a solution," said Haskins, 65. "And so, it isn't in my DNA to wilt under pressure. In fact, it only strengthens my resolve.

T. Rowe Price said it was selling its bank to New York financier Jacob M. Safra for about $24 million in light of new banking regulations that would limit other aspects of the Baltimore-based money manager's business. The bank was launched in 2000 as an additional service to clients and had $149.5 million in assets invested in certificates of deposit at the end of March, said spokesman Brian Lewbart. New banking regulations, though, would restrict other aspects of the company's operations, such as limiting Price's ability to provide seed money to some overseas investment vehicles, he said.

Talbot Bank of Easton, Maryland said Friday it has entered into a consent order with federal and state regulators. That order from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Commissioner of Financial Regulation of Maryland requires the bank to improve its credit quality and revise some of its policies and procedures, the bank said. "No bank has been immune from the challenges created by the economic downturn," CEO Patrick M. Bilbrough said in a statement. "As we deal with those challenges, we are working closely with the FDIC and the commissioner to make sure that we handle these challenges in the correct way in a timely manner.

The Maryland state school board adopted regulations Tuesday that require more concussion training for those responsible for student-athletes and beef up protocols for addressing head injuries. In addition, the board will convene an advisory board to recommend limits on exposure to contact in sports in which concussions can occur. The unanimous vote to adopt the regulations concludes a months-long process to tackle the issue in Maryland, which included emergency regulations and a 21-member task force made up of physicians, athletic trainers and school administrators.

Tomorrow, Gov. Martin O'Malley plans to sign into law the most comprehensive gun control legislation Maryland has seen in at least 25 years, a bill that will not only help guard against a mass shooting incident, like December's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, but will also help fight the day-to-day violence that plagues Baltimore and other communities. The bill has become doubly important with the failure - at least for the moment - of attempts to tighten gun laws on the federal level, both because it will make Marylanders safer and because it can serve as a model for other states as they seek ways to address gun violence.

MINNEAPOLIS -- A group of state regulators and a top industry watchdog are backing a new rule that would provide uniform protection to people who buy annuities. The NASD, a self-regulating organization that oversees broker-dealers, along with insurance commissioners from Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa issued a joint statement yesterday calling for states to make sure that insurance companies sell only suitable annuities to their customers. Under the current system, state insurance commissioners oversee insurance agents while the NASD supervises licensed broker-dealers.

The state Public Utilities Commission will schedule a formal hearing on whether to make Uber Technologies, which lets Baltimore customers hail a town car by smart phone, abide by regulations that govern taxi companies. The app-driven startup company Uber entered the Baltimore market in January, raising the ire of local cab companies that said it was skirting state regulations. Century-old Yellow Cab filed a challenge with the commission, contending that Uber should not be allowed to operate here until it complies with the same safety and insurance regulations as traditional taxi and limo companies.

Take a line-by-line look at your cellphone bill - all dozen or so pages. See a $9.99 charge for horoscopes, flirting tips or some such thing that you didn't request? If so, you've been crammed. Once only a big problem with landline telephones, cramming - the placement of unauthorized charges on phone bills by outsiders - is gaining a foothold in the mobile-phone marketplace, regulators and consumer advocates say. Indeed, some landline crammers have migrated to wireless schemes as consumers switch to smartphones.