Compliance

The Trump administration's cantankerous relationship with China has lasted the president's entire term, often shaking up the payments and financial services landscape. With a new executive order, Trump has announced bans on more than a half dozen software firms — including payment apps affiliated with Tencent and Alibaba/Ant Group.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency terminated a 2015 consent order that required the bank to improve its controls for combating money laundering.

Several government agencies have made deeper moves into crypto oversight, leaving a trail of angry executives and unresolved political questions. And there's still no sign of a central bank digital currency, leaving the U.S. at risk of falling behind other countries in the race to support faster payment processing.

The panel unanimously approved the measure by a notation vote, its second such move in weeks, and the proposal will now be subject to a comment period.

When the Chinese banking authorities finish reshaping Jack Ma’s empire, the only thing he may have left is Alipay — which would still be the world’s most popular mobile and online payments app.

The National Credit Union Administration juggled several challenges this year beyond the pandemic recession, including an inspector general's report about alleged misconduct by two former employees and criticism that board members had lost their old spirit of comity.

Jack Ma’s besieged Ant Group Co. is planning to fold its financial operations into a holding company that could be regulated more like a bank, according to people familiar with the situation, potentially crippling the growth of its most-profitable units.

Under the terms of the rule, NCUA could exempt credit unions from some Bank Secrecy Act requirements on a case-by-case basis, provided there are no safety or soundness concerns.

Rapidly spreading coronavirus and an unclear Brexit outcome are bearing down on the U.K., leaving the fate of London as a technology and finance hub in the air as 2020 draws to a close.

Congress’s passage of a measure requiring startup companies — instead of their banks — to identify true owners was arguably the industry’s biggest legislative achievement in 2020. Now the industry is urging lawmakers to revisit proposals that would ease other anti-money-laundering reporting requirements.