Law and legal issues

The Supreme Court ruled this year that companies facing civil money penalties have the right to request a jury trial. The ruling is going to change the way regulators and companies think about enforcement actions.

Los Angeles dispute resolution platform Ejudicate was banned by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for forcing borrowers into arbitration with an affiliated creditor.

Toronto-Dominion Bank will pay the penalties and agree to restrictions on its U.S. growth in a settlement with regulators over its failure to catch money laundering, the Wall Street Journal reported. Regulators are likely to announce the settlement Thursday.

The case is one of the latest to question if firms can be held liable for costly investment decisions made by clients showing signs of mental decline.

The latest lawsuit accuses the firm of not only failing to look out for clients' best interests but also failing to secure "reasonable returns" on money held in retirement accounts.

Antitrust enforcers are preparing to accuse the payments giant of taking steps to keep rivals from challenging its dominance in the debit card market, according to people familiar with the matter.

The suit was filed by three New Jersey residents who alleged that BofA froze their prepaid debit cards during a pandemic-era fraud wave, blocking them from accessing unemployment benefits.

Fintech app Yotta filed a lawsuit against partner bank Evolve, arguing that it conspired with Synapse to misuse customer funds.

Agencies must now provide clearer justifications for their interpretations, while Congress needs to draft more precise legislation. The decision could empower banks to challenge agency rules more frequently and potentially prolong regulatory processes, with courts giving less deference to agency interpretations.

In a new lawsuit, a former BMO employee says he was fired because he reported his concern that the bank was intentionally charging too much to clients who used a foreign-exchange product. BMO denies the allegations.

As Silvergate Capital filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, an executive said the company's crypto-friendly bank went down last year because regulators soured on its business model.

The Canadian bank said it expects to recover hundreds of millions of dollars after a three-judge appeals panel found that it cannot be held liable in connection with a multibillion-dollar fraud. The ruling echoed a different appeals court's decision stemming from the collapse of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme.

The law that created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau stipulates that the agency must be funded by the central bank's earnings. But, the Fed has been losing money for two years. Therefore, its payments to the agency are not legal.

The American Bankers Association says a proposal to replace its own financial security identifier with one owned by Bloomberg exceeds the agencies' statutory authority and could disrupt financial markets.

Diane Offereins retired from a top job last year amid scrutiny of the card network's charges to merchants. Now she's suing Discover over its decision to cancel unvested stock worth $7 million.

Recent Supreme Court decisions reducing the ability of regulatory agencies to interpret the meaning of federal laws make it likely that supervisory decisions based on assessments of banks' safety and soundness will face court challenges.

The plaintiffs' 2nd Circuit filing in the Bank of America escrow preemption case is the first since the Supreme Court sent it back for more analysis.

The wealth management giants join their rivals Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, UBS, LPL Financial and Ameriprise in being accused of using uninvested cash in advisory accounts to boost their bottom lines rather than benefit clients.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is trying to limit the impact of a Supreme Court decision that curtailed federal agencies' use of administrative law judges.

A federal judge excoriated banks for inflating data in a challenge to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's data collection on small-business loans.