Legal issues and news

Congress's enactment of the defense spending bill opposed by the White House removes the final hurdle for a key anti-money-laundering provision.

In December, the National Credit Union Administration barred the individuals from working in the financial services sector for taking money from their institutions for personal use.

An impasse over pandemic relief checks for Americans is holding up an override of President Trump's veto of a bill shifting beneficial-owner requirements from banks to their commercial clients.

The latest cyberattacks pointing to the Russian government show that U.S. federal agencies and banks still lack a clear, collaborative game plan.

The Securities and Exchange Commission last week accused Ripple of breaking securities laws, raising questions about the future of banks' ties with the company.

The new legislation includes a provision sparing lenders from having to pay such fees on Paycheck Protection Program loans, except in cases where they agree in advance with borrower representatives to do so.

With Microsoft, Equifax and others acknowledging that the SolarWinds hack of U.S. government entities had affected their holdings, security teams and vendors have put the holiday aside while continuing around-the-clock surveillance to ensure no financial services or payments networks have been hacked.

As risk rises and budgets tighten post-pandemic, training all employees about security risks and conducting quarterly penetration tests helps to offset threats and potential losses.

By upgrading permissions and defining access, firms can get ahead of the new threat, says vArmour's Marc Woolword.

The Pittsburgh bank says the data aggregator deceptively uses PNC's logo in obtaining bank customers' login credentials.

The Federal Reserve and the New York State Department of Financial Services have ordered the Swiss bank’s U.S. arm to improve oversight and better monitor the activities of its customers.

Congress’s passage of a measure requiring startup companies — instead of their banks — to identify true owners was arguably the industry’s biggest legislative achievement in 2020. Now the industry is urging lawmakers to revisit proposals that would ease other anti-money-laundering reporting requirements.

The bank's release from a five-year-old enforcement action would mark progress in CEO Charlie Scharf's efforts to resolve its sprawling regulatory problems. But 10 more consent orders, including an asset cap imposed by the Federal Reserve in 2018, remain in place.

Remote learning and work heightens the security risk, says Pulse Secure's Mike Riemer.

The agency's rule outlines steps collectors must take to inform consumers about an outstanding debt, and prohibits companies from pursuing lawsuits after a statute of limitations has ended.

The agency said it may exempt certain institutions from having to file suspicious activity reports if they have “innovative solutions intended to meet Bank Secrecy Act requirements more efficiently and effectively." But in those circumstances, law enforcement may still require SARs.

Manual transaction monitoring doesn't scale to the acceleration of online activity, leading to many potential false negatives, and reduced efficiencies as teams demand quick growth and analysts take time to train properly, says Acuant's Jose Caldera.

Bansley & Kiener, without admitting wrongdoing, agreed to pay $2.5 million to address allegations that lax oversight contributed to the 2017 collapse of Washington Federal Bank for Savings.

A co-founder of a cryptocurrency firm was sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to tricking investors out of more than $25 million in an investment scam promoted with the help of celebrities including Floyd Mayweather and the musician DJ Khaled.

Federal banking agencies want to give the industry a hard deadline for notifying their regulators about serious security breaches and failed system upgrades.