Enforcement

A tip from a whistle-blower led regulators to crack down on Citizens Financial Group for ignoring discrepancies between customer deposit slips and the amount actually placed into the bank — and similar actions against other banks could be on their way.

FNBH Bancorp in Michigan has been unable to make an important move without its primary regulator's OK in the six years since its nonperforming assets hit double digits. It's an extreme example of the tension between past problems and future visions that freezes many banks.

Ocwen Financial's internal review group is "independent," and the Atlanta servicer is in compliance with the national mortgage settlement, settlement monitor Joseph A. Smith said Tuesday.

The New York Bankers Association is challenging the legality of a local law that is designed to cajole banks into making larger investments in poorer communities. The outcome could be an important precedent in relation to similar laws in other cities.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has filed a lawsuit in federal court against a web of payday lending companies, alleging that they collected money that consumers did not owe and falsely threatened consumers with lawsuits and imprisonment.

Four Oaks Bank & Trust in Four Oaks, N.C., said its May 2011 enforcement action has been replaced with a more lenient agreement that requires it to address governance issues and other matters.

The past two weeks have dashed hopes by bankers that the New York Department of Financial Services might take a different approach after the departure of Benjamin Lawsky as its superintendent. In taking actions against Promontory Financial Group and launching a probe into a bank-run instant messaging service, the agency appears poised to carry on Lawsky's legacy.

Promontory Financial vowed to take the New York Department of Financial Services to court after it effectively banned the consulting firm from working on regulatory issues for banks the department supervises.

The Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program is renewing calls for further investigation of servicers it claims may be denying too many Home Affordable Modification Program applications.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is charging two companies affiliated with Western Union and Fidelity National Financial more than $38 million in total charges for allegedly steering consumers into a mortgage payment program that cost them millions of dollars in fees.