Within weeks of taking office, U.S. President Barack Obama rode to the rescue of homeowners resigned to financial ruin.

The U.S. banking system will lose some 1,000 banks over the next two years, said John Kanas, BankUnited chairman & CEO on Thursday.

New federal rules that might have encouraged private equity firms to snap up troubled banks could wind up keeping those buyers in their seats, says the New York Times.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation plans to issue new rules that could make it slightly easier for private equity firms to buy failed banks, according to people familiar with the agency’s deliberations.

The Fed does not mind if private equity firms have a minority interest in banks — the Obama administration even wants them to invest. But the Fed will not let them take control, a stance the firms are lobbying regulators mightily to change, especially given that stress test results to be released Thursday are expected to show a glaring need for capital in the banking system.