Financial crimes

A federal judge has silenced — at least temporarily — a whistleblower who brought charges of misconduct at the parent company of Bank of Internet USA in San Diego.

Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry provided new details Wednesday about guidance expected soon that will attempt to discourage banks from cutting off relationships with foreign financial institutions in certain parts of the world.

Federal Reserve Gov. Daniel Tarullo laid out a sweeping vision of the future of the central bank's hallmark supervisory stress testing program — a vision that involves major concessions to midsize regionals and puts added pressure of the largest and most systemically risky banks.

As the U.S. prepares to face the results of an evaluation by the Financial Action Task Force for its anti-money-laundering and terrorist financing efforts, there are signs that it might receive a bad grade.

Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen today pushed back against the notion that banks might be "too big to manage", saying that despite concerns raised by the recent scandal at Wells Fargo, there is no inherent reason why large banks cannot meet existing standards of conduct.

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.

Big banks' flirtation with the idea of suing the Federal Reserve Board over its stress testing regime carries significant political risk and even if successful could yield at best a pyrrhic victory over the megabanks' primary regulator.

The Federal Reserve's annual stress testing regime violates federal administrative law, a coalition of banking groups said in a white paper released Thursday, likely previewing a court battle that could have far-reaching consequences for the program.

In an interview Friday morning, Federal Reserve Gov. Daniel Tarullo said that enforcement agencies and even the Department of Justice need to hold individuals accountable amid revelations that thousands of Wells Fargo employees opened illegal accounts for customers.

U.S. prosecutors are considering a criminal charge against a unit of HSBC Holdings Plc related to conduct on its foreign-exchange desk, according to two people familiar with the matter, imperiling an earlier deal that let the bank avoid prosecution.

A breakdown in internal controls at Bank of Princeton almost killed a deal to sell the company to Investors Bancorp.

Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Esther George is best known nationally as a critic of the Fed's monetary policy, but in a wide-ranging interview she talks about Dodd-Frank, bank capitalization and the challenges facing community banking, in addition to interest rates.

WASHINGTON – The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is proposing to extend anti-money-laundering requirements to a limited number of financial institutions that are not already regulated by a federal agency.

WASHINGTON — The American Bankers Association has fired back at a White House research note that argued the Dodd-Frank Act was not driving community bank consolidation.

The New York State Department of Financial Services has fined Mega International Commercial Bank in Taiwan $180 million in connection with allegations that it violated New York’s anti-money-laundering laws.

Investors Bancorp in Short Hills, N.J., has joined the ranks of banks flagged by regulators for Bank Secrecy Act issues.

WASHINGTON — The Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 has not had a negative impact on community banks, contrary to assertions by Republicans and many bankers, according to a group of White House economists.

WASHINGTON — The biggest banks are supporting a bill that would ensure that all U.S. companies submit beneficial ownership information to authorities, arguing it would help combat money laundering and terrorist financing.

With supervisory pressures continuing to mount, a piecemeal approach to handling banks’ regulatory demands is costly and ineffective.

Elliptic, a startup that monitors the bitcoin network for suspicious patterns, has introduced anti-money-laundering data into its service through a partnership with LexisNexis Risk Solutions.