Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Round Two: Congress isn't through with Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf just yet. Following his pummeling before the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday, Stumpf has been asked to testify before the House Financial Services Committee next week on the bank's phony accounts scandal.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Another day, another woe: The pressure on Wells Fargo continues to increase. Eight Democrat senators Thursday asked the Labor Department to open an investigation into the bank's workplace practices. Specifically, the senators, led by Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., asked the department's Wage and Hour Division to examine whether Wells "aggressively skirted" overtime laws and failed to properly compensate its lower-level employees. Labor said it was taking "very seriously" complaints about how the bank may have treated its employees.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Backwater no longer: Payment systems have long been a backwater of finance, but all that is changing, the Financial Times says in a special report on "The Payments Revolution." While the expansion of online shopping and mobile payment devices has spurred massive growth, "the industry is entering a period of extreme disruption. The dominant players — the banks and credit card companies — face an uncertain future. A fast-growing group of upstart financial technology, or 'fintech,' companies are lining up to challenge the incumbent payment providers by offering to meet customer demand for faster, cheaper and easier-to-use services — many of them using the blockchain." At the same time, regulators are increasing pressure on banks to reduce their fees, while traditional payment services "are facing an onslaught of cyber attacks from an army of increasingly sophisticated hackers and digital criminals."

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Good news, bad news: Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo had some good news and some bad news for U.S. commercial banks on Monday. First, he said the Fed is proposing easing stress-test requirements for banks with less than $250 billion in assets that don't engage in significant nonbank or international activity. But the central bank is also considering a separate proposal, to be issued sometime next year, that would have the effect of "significantly" raising capital requirements for the largest banks that are considered "systemically important," meaning the eight largest.

Breaking News This Morning ...Deutsche sells insurer: Deutsche Bank, which is under heavy pressure to raise capital, said Wednesday it sold its Abbey Life insurance unit to Phoenix Group Holdings for $1.22 billion. The bank's stock, which hit a 33-year low earlier this week, as it faces a potential $14 billion penalty in the U.S. for allegedly selling toxic mortgage-backed securities, in addition to other problems, including a failed stress test and weak quarterly earnings. The sale, however, will result in a nearly $900 million loss for the German bank. The BBC reported Wednesday morning that Germany is devising a bailout plan, should one be needed, although the bank denied the report. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Call in the SEC: Three Democratic senators, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Wells Fargo "violated laws by misleading investors and firing whistleblowers while the bank oversaw the creation of millions of unauthorized, fraudulent accounts," according to the Wall Street Journal. The situation at Wells does "justify an investigation into at least three types of securities law violations," according to the letter the senators sent to the SEC, including signing off on inaccurate financial reports, failing to disclose the fake accounts scandal, and firing employees who tried to report wrongdoing.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Run on Deutsche?: Deutsche Bank shares were under pressure again Friday morning as several large, influential hedge funds moved to pull their money out of the bank, creating what some fear is a Lehman Brothers-type run. But CEO John Cryan told staff the bank has "strong foundations" and urged them not to be distracted by "distorted perception from outside." He said there are "currently some forces at play in the market that want to weaken this trust in us." Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Deutsche's turn in the hot seat: Deutsche Bank replaced Wells Fargo as the financial world's favorite whipping boy, at least over the weekend. The Financial Times reports that Germany's deputy chancellor and economics minister, Sigmar Gabriel, "launched a blistering attack" on Deutsche's CEO John Cryan after Cryan last week blamed "forces in the market" for trying to destabilize the bank. "I didn't know whether I should laugh or be furious that a bank which turned speculation into a business model now declares itself the victim of speculators," Gabriel told reporters. Gabriel's comments "suggest that if push comes to shove, the bank can expect little sympathy from Berlin," the FT says.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...More pain for Wells: Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said he plans to introduce a bill that would prevent Wells Fargo from forcing customers to use arbitration clauses if they challenge the bank for opening bank accounts without their permission, a move that would make it easier for customers to sue the bank for any damages they may have incurred as a result. "Giving customers back their right to take Wells Fargo to court gives them the power to ensure they are made whole and helps prevent cases like this in the future," Brown said in a press release.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Out of the shadows: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed disclosure and consumer protection rules for prepaid debit cards. Under the proposal, which would take effect in a year, prepaid cards would be required to carry a standardized disclosure of the card's monthly fee as well as details on fees for cash withdrawals, customer service calls, overdrafts and reloads. The cards would also have to provide the same liability protection that applies to credit cards. "The rules bring prepaid cards out of the shadows, with protections that in many ways are stronger than those for traditional bank accounts," said Lauren Saunders, the associate director of the National Consumer Law Center, which lobbied for the rules. New York Times, Financial Times, American Banker