WASHINGTON - (03/17/06) The House Financial ServicesCommittee approved a bill requiring consumer notification in databreaches Thursday, after committing to give serious considerationlater on to a credit union-backed proposal requiring partiesresponsible for data breaches pay the costs of card replacementsand other related expenses. What this says, said Rep.Michael Capuano, D-Mass., is, if you screw up, you pay forit. Capuano was urged on by NAFCU and AmericasCommunity Bankers, who have been told of members spending hundredsof thousands of dollars to reissue credit cards due to databreaches in recent months. Capuano agreed to withdraw his amendmentafter committee leaders agreed to work on it further as the billprogresses through the legislative process. The committee measure,one of several data breach bills working their way throughCongress, would require retailers, processors and financialinstitutions to notify their customers if a data breach that maycause harm. The panel rejected a bid by Democratic members toinclude a provision which would allow consumers tofreeze their credit when they learn of that theirinformation may be have been breached. Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala.,said the FACT Act passed in 2004 allows already allows consumers toput a fraud watch on their accounts when they suspect theirinformation has been breached. The laws only been ineffect for one year. Let it work, said Bachus.
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Synovus Financial demonstrated at an industry conference how it is using Microsoft's Copilot to help its staff address customers' concerns.
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The U.S. arm of Spanish banking giant Santander has hired Swati Bhatia to oversee retail banking and its digital transformation efforts. Bhatia joins at "an inflection point" for the company, which aims to be "a digital bank with branches," CEO Tim Wennes said.
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Mariya Rosberg is named Americas head of banking and financial services at Marsh McLennan's Oliver Wyman unit; startup ZayZoon raised $15 million in a new funding round; and more in the weekly banking news roundup.
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Last year, the Raleigh, N.C.-based Integrated called off a deal to sell itself to MVB Financial after bank stocks took a hit in the aftermath of the regional bank failures. Capital hopes to expand its government-guaranteed lending with the transaction.
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Once a prominent figure spurring financial institutions to engage in cryptocurrency, Bankman-Fried's downslide began with the collapse of the digital asset exchange FTX in late 2022 and hit rock bottom with his sentencing to 25 years in prison.
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But the 30-year fixed rate mortgage is still near 7%, and that remains the overhang on the housing market, Freddie Mac said.
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