Opinions

WASHINGTON – For the second time, a federal judge has ruled that the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network must withdraw a rule designed to cut off the Tanzanian bank FBME from the U.S. financial system.

WASHINGTON — A Republican lawmaker is urging the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to consider issues related to virtual currency companies as the agency develops a fintech regulatory framework.

John Stumpf may have hoped that Tuesday's hearing on Capitol Hill would mark a key turning point in Wells Fargo's blossoming scandal, but his harsh questioning by lawmakers — and his struggle to answer many of their questions — suggests that the embattled megabank's problems are just beginning.

Policymakers repeatedly said during a Senate Banking hearing Tuesday that Wells' mistakes couldn't be blamed — as the company maintains — just on rogue employees. Instead, they see a cultural problem at the San Francisco bank and wonder whether it extends beyond Wells Fargo.

The rampant unethical behavior at Wells Fargo suggests that bankers' ethics are still fundamentally awry eight years after the mortgage meltdown.

Wells Fargo Chief Executive John Stumpf was relentlessly questioned by lawmakers for nearly three hours Tuesday about what he knew of phony account openings and whether the bank would punish senior executives in what was arguably the worst hearing for a bank executive since the financial crisis.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called on Wells Fargo Chief Executive John Stumpf to resign Tuesday, saying Wall Street would continue to rip off customers until senior executives are held accountable.

Contrary to expectations about growing mortgage lending volumes, current industry trends suggest a gradual reduction in capacity for both lending and servicing that should alarm policymakers.

Virtual currency advocates are hoping a recent surge of support in Congress can help them accomplish a long-sought goal of creating a safe-harbor for companies that do not directly hold customers' funds.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton released an open letter to Wells Fargo customers Tuesday in which she called the phony account openings "deeply disturbing," defended the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and demanded that individual executives be held accountable.