Legal issues and news

Bankruptcy filings rose 11.9% during the past 12 months, according to statistics from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts; JPMorganChase named Jerry Lee and Nick Richitt as global co-heads of health care investment banking; Goldman Sachs appointed Akila Raman as global head of its private and alternatives capital markets business; and more in this week's banking news roundup.

The Justice Department recategorized state and federally approved cannabis products from Schedule I to Schedule III, a move that falls short of full legalization but could ignite renewed interest from banks and credit unions in servicing state-legal cannabis businesses.

James filed a pair of lawsuits against Coinbase and Gemini arguing that they violated New York's sports gambling laws.

U.S. banks must navigate conflicting signals as Iran's crypto toll demands and rising pig butchering scams exploit the same stablecoin and correspondent banking rails.

Some litigants are "knuckleheads" but others are real threats, and well-pleaded cases can easily cost companies millions of dollars, TCPA attorney Eric Troutman said.

The bank-owned fintech has been under immense pressure to do more to combat fraud and scams on its peer-to-peer network, and is hoping to bring more public visibility to what the company says has always been its historical backbone.

The crypto exchange is refusing to pay criminals who accessed internal systems through rogue employees, sparking concerns over its new Fed master account.

A federal judge refused to sign a settlement agreement between the Department of Justice and Houston developer Colony Ridge because it failed to provide any consumer relief. DOJ agreed to an out-of-court settlement instead.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has dismissed scores of enforcement attorneys early in President Donald Trump's second term, is staffing up its litigation arm in anticipation of defending its rules in court.

Former Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Randal Quarles, who served during President Trump's first term, said members of the Fed board should be removable by the president, but that the decentralized structure of the Fed will ensure that monetary policy decisions remain sound.

The industry reported $275 million in losses from internet crimes last year, a 59% annual increase as losses nationwide surpassed $20 billion.

A trade group representing debt collection agencies alleges that the Golden State is charging unlawfully high licensing fees in an effort to fund an inflated budget. California regulators declined to comment on the suit.

The payments processing firm recently filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy with a nearly $3 million disputed charge owed to a subsidiary of Global Payments.

The Treasury Department Wednesday proposed a set of rules that would require stablecoin issuers to abide by risk-based anti-money-laundering programs similar to those that banks must employ, as well as secondary market monitoring and independent testing by issuers. 

Swiss banking giant UBS tried to get a federal court to reject new allegations that Credit Suisse, which UBS acquired in 2023, had concealed Nazi-linked assets.

Financial institution members of The Knoble will be using AI to monitor transactions around the soccer games for signs of trafficking and share suspicious activity information with each other.  

A federal appeals court has agreed to rehear a challenge to a Colorado law intended to combat "rent-a-bank," arrangements that would impose Colorado's interest rate caps on certain out-of-state banks.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed a $4.5 million fine against Voxbeam Telecommunications, which it accused of facilitating fraud scams. Many of the calls spoofed phone numbers belonging to American banks.

The largest crypto theft of 2026 hit Drift Protocol after attackers exploited a small security council, putting a spotlight on DeFi vulnerabilities.

As the CFPB reconsiders its open banking rule, banks and fintechs are locked in a bitter battle over who will pay for the new digital infrastructure.