Regulation

New research reveals the financial services industry both prefers and predicts an incumbent win in November.

Waiting for the SBA to sign off on PPP loan forgiveness; banks criticized for requiring balloon payments on loans in forbearance; how backlash over Scharf remarks affects Wells Fargo’s diversity push; and more from this week’s most-read stories.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council said the mortgage giants may need a bigger capital cushion than their regulator has proposed, but stopped short of designating them as “systemically important financial institutions.”

The OCC is trying to seize jurisdiction by arguing that current supervision is haphazard. But states are already working together to streamline regulation while continuing to enforce consumer protections and encourage innovation.

Financial institutions and authorities could better track money launderers if legalized-marijuana-related businesses were not included in SARs.

Artificial intelligence, machine learning and enhanced data sharing among lenders could go a long way toward spotting suspicious patterns in daily financial activity and bad actors, experts say.

The news media investigation of transactions by nefarious actors puts certain large banks in a negative light, but it also points to inefficient use of suspicious activity reports and other anti-money-laundering issues that the industry has decried for years.

With lawmakers weighing changes to Bank Secrecy Act requirements, the Government Accountability Office urged the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to establish written policies for expanding use of the agency’s database.

Matthew Raphaelson, Kenneth Zimmerman and Tracy Kidd, all of whom were senior executives in the company’s consumer banking unit, have agreed to pay six-figure fines in connection with Wells Fargo’s unauthorized account scandal.

Credit union issues could struggle to gain traction as lawmakers battle over a replacement justice.