Legal issues and news

The Financial Conduct Authority has fined a U.K. unit of HSBC Holdings 64 million pounds ($85 million) after finding “serious weaknesses” in the automated processes it used to monitor suspicious transactions, the latest example of the watchdog’s increasingly assertive stance against the firms it regulates.

JPMorgan Chase is preparing to pay roughly $200 million to resolve U.S. regulatory investigations into lapses over monitoring employee communications.

Societe Generale Chief Executive Frederic Oudea is taking over the bank’s risk and compliance functions, seeking greater control over management of the bank’s legal affairs after it paid billions of dollars in penalties.

The ruling may offer hope for Gwen Campbell, who alleges that JPM’s private bank is “poaching” and “siphoning” her celebrity clients’ assets away from her management and paycheck.

JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and six other large banks may have information about billions of dollars looted from Libya by its former dictator Moammar Al Qaddafi, the Libya government said in a subpoena application. 

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network proposed standards to determine which companies must report their beneficial owners under a law enacted in January. Banks hope the new requirements will free them of the burden of collecting true-owner information about their customers.

President Biden says his administration is focused on policing cryptocurrency crimes to combat corruption globally and is taking advantage of a newly formed Department of Justice task force, according to an anti-graft report released Monday.

U.K. authorities expect to recover as much as 2 billion pounds ($2.7 billion) of fraudulent COVID loans over the next year, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said on Tuesday.

The regulator has a policy that allows it to convert public enforcement actions into informal, nonpublic ones in cases where banks haven't fully met their obligations. Its inspector general says that the practice may give a false impression to customers and investors.

Research shows the number of fraudulent transactions and dollar amounts involved are soaring as merchants increasingly go digital. Credit card and other companies are expected to more than double what they invest in AI and other tech to fortify their systems.

HSBC Holdings, Credit Suisse Group,  Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland Group were fined 344 million euros ($390 million) by the European Commission for their involvement in a foreign-exchange price fixing cartel. 

The agreement resolves a lawsuit over consumer loans that had annual percentage rates as high as 198%. Chicago-based OppFi denied allegations that it engaged in unfair lending practices.

Lawmakers are seeking documents from two companies — Blueacorn and Womply — over concerns about the suspected scale of fraud in Paycheck Protection Program loans they processed.

American Express said it discontinued a service known as Premium Wire and terminated some employees after workers inappropriately positioned the product to customers. 

Regulators are requiring an operational overhaul at The Federal Savings Bank. Its former CEO Stephen Calk, who sought a job in the Trump administration, was convicted in connection with loans the bank made to onetime Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort.

The bank was fined $150 million for anti-money-laundering violations because it missed — or ignored — numerous red flags in its dealings with the convicted sex offender. Here's what it should have done differently.

A former vice president in JPMorgan Chase’s anti-corruption unit claimed in a lawsuit that she was marginalized, mistreated and fired from the bank for complaining about compliance failures.