Enforcement

Symphony, the instant messaging service supported by fifteen large banks, says it will be ready to roll on Sept. 15 despite the objections of Sen. Elizabeth Warren and regulators who fear its encryption technology will impede supervision.

As marketing services agreements disappear under pressure from regulators, loan officers will have to compete based on skill and customer service to win referral business.

As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finishes regulations dealing with mortgage data reporting, a similar set of requirements for small business loans is waiting in the wings.

Banks need more clarity about the circumstances under which attorney-client privilege applies. Otherwise they may decline to ask questions about the legality of their actions, leading to even more compliance problems.

The largest bank in Tanzania has sued the U.S. Treasury Department to halt a rule that designates the bank as a "primary money laundering concern," which cuts off its access to dollar funding and may prove to be a death sentence for the institution.

Nothing touches off an argument more than questions about whether the CFPB will allow any marketing services agreements to continue. Some mortgage lenders say no and are winding down their agreements, others insist regulators can be satisfied, and still others are just plain confused.

WASHINGTON — Two California companies allegedly sold pension advance loans that they claimed were not credit products but in fact charged usurious interest rates, according to a lawsuit brought Thursday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and New York regulators.

Banks have ramped up foreclosure activity in the past five months, with default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions at their highest levels in two years. It's a positive sign that banks are finally clearing out all the distressed loans still lingering from the housing crisis. Meanwhile, banks remain cautious about new lending, partly because of regulatory actions.

Citigroup has agreed to refund $4.5 million to global markets customers who were charged excessive fees and did not receive appropriate rebates.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Springstone Financial, acquired last year by Lending Club, misled borrowers into thinking loans carried zero interest.

Promontory Financial Group on Tuesday agreed to a $15 million settlement, and a six-month ban from accepting certain new consulting work in New York, to resolve an investigation by the state's department of financial services into its consulting work at Standard Chartered Bank.

Bank of New York Mellon has agreed to pay $14.8 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that it used its internship program to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

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.