Legal issues and news

The former crypto wunderkid added a presidential-pardon application to the long list of attempts to get his sentence reduced.

Payment experts detail where banks are falling short in combating AI-driven crimes.

The suit tests an unusual theory: that a borrower's lawyer crossed from representing a client into joining a $145 million fraud.

The consumer intelligence company alleged that Chime willfully misused J.D. Power's name and trademark in its marketing materials. The neobank said it would "vigorously" defend its position.

Cheungkin Lam fed customers' account details to a crew that drained their balances, including $417,300 from one account that TD had to repay.

Joseph Sanberg was handed a 168-month prison sentence for two counts of wire fraud after the celebrity-backed ecofintech collapsed last year.

Belgian prosecutors say they're finalizing charges over €500 million in suspect transactions. Wise calls the case, like its U.S. run-ins, a routine matter.

A federal judge blocked Illinois from enforcing its interchange fee ban for taxes and tips against national banks and card networks after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's recent intervention materially altered the court's preemption analysis.

Lawmakers early on Monday voted to push the effective date of the law, which would ban interchange fees on the tax and tip portions of transactions, to July 1, 2027, marking the second delay as merchants and banks continue to battle in court. 

Regulators pushed banks toward multifactor authentication. A new phishing-as-a-service kit, flagged by the FBI, is built to slip right past it.

A proposal from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. would require the agency to notify Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network 30 days prior to major anti-money laundering actions against stablecoin issuers. The rule would also allow issuers to directly share normally confidential information with Fincen during the enforcement process.

An automated alert system auto-closed "a very high percentage" of suspicious-activity flags at the bank, the OCC said.

The Department of Justice said that Birmingham, Alabama-based Regions sought forgiveness from the Small Business Administration for a Paycheck Protection Program loan that the bank should have known did not qualify.

New research suggests customers are willing to accept some friction in exchange for more robust fraud controls.

The card brand says advanced artificial intelligence is making it easier for crooks to trick consumers, but the technology also allows banks to fight back.

The White House issued an executive order Tuesday directing the Treasury department, bank regulators and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to advise banks on "red flags" of informal work arrangements. How agencies implement the order will determine how onerous compliance will ultimately be for banks.

The National Credit Union Administration Tuesday submitted a rule to the Office of Management and Budget stating that federal law preempts state laws on interchange, blocking an Illinois statute banning the collection of swipe fees on taxes and tips.

Suncoast Credit Union moved from one-time identity checks to monitoring members for the life of the account. It says fraud losses fell more than a third.

The $110 million settlement, which was mapped out last fall, requires Wells Fargo to establish a $100 million fund to provide downpayment and closing-cost assistance to eligible borrowers who live in or plan to buy a home in certain low- and moderate-income census tracts.

In a move seen to bolster his 2028 presidential run, California Governor Gavin Newsom named Rohit Chopra, the former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to lead a new oversight agency; a Pine Bluff, Arkansas, bank employee was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison for bank theft; a Fairfax, Virginia, security administrator has been charged with allegedly stealing more than $6.6 million from his employer; and more in this week's banking news roundup.