Legal issues and news

Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney wrote in a two-paragraph filing that the Mount Laurel, N.J., company did not violate the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.

Agency says it wants “smaller memberships to ensure streamlined discussions;” the bank hired a U.K. firm to help it better defend against cyberattacks.

There is a growing fraud problem encompassing much more than the direct value of lost merchandise. There is also manual order review, opportunity costs from false positives and the massive overhead of implementing fraud-fighting best practices, writes Ryan Breslow, CEO of Bolt.

The agency has no plans to release general findings from an extensive review of sales practices at large and midsized banks. That's troublesome, and will only fuel the perception that it is too cozy with the institutions it regulates.

The OCC finds widespread problems in bank retail sales practices; Ripple and Swift competition for payments pits technology against convention.

An inquiry into the sales practices of more than 40 banks launched in the wake of the Wells scandal found several systemic issues and hundreds of problems at individual institutions. The OCC completed the review in December but is not making the results public.

Bankers hope to claw back even more of the agency's rule rather than merely defend their partial victory in the judge's original split decision.

Financial institutions can improve monitoring of suspicious activity and potentially risky customers using algorithms, but they need to treat this new technology with caution.

UniCredit and Société Générale are discussing a merger; Revolut also plans to launch its mobile service in the U.S. this summer.

No surprises expected from the annual Fed reviews; Elad Roisman is seen as the pick to replace Michael Piwowar on the panel.

Add S&T Bancorp to the list of lenders that appear to have exposure to a Pennsylvania fuel supplier dealing with alleged employee fraud.

The banker made $140,000 in illegal trading profits; the German bank faces Fed stress test and “living will” examination soon.

California lawmakers have voted to authorize the establishment of state-chartered banks for the limited purpose of serving the marijuana industry.

Fulton Financial, Univest Corp. of Pennsylvania and Franklin Financial Services disclosed a total of $75 million in exposure to the commercial relationship.

Speaking at an industry conference Thursday, Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan left open the possibility that employees intentionally falsified important regulatory documents.

Wells Fargo customers who didn't consent to having 3.5 million accounts created by bankers trying to hit sales quotas are finally getting what a judge called "rough justice."

The $1.9 trillion-asset bank is under pressure to provide investors more information about when it expects to resolve the numerous headaches that have arisen in the wake of its phony-accounts scandal.

The bank sought to evade the consequences of compliance failures including weak scrutiny of transactions that could be tied to North Korea, the N.Y. banking superintendent said in demanding access to communications between the bank and its new supervisor, the OCC.

With President Trump signing the regulatory relief bill into law on Thursday, credit unions expect to see a host of benefits, including changes to MBL regs, HMDA exemptions, changes to the QM rule and more.

In an age of quick processing for digital payments, transaction disputes can still take weeks for a resolution or chargeback — an unacceptable time frame for e-commerce. To hasten dispute resolution, some vendors are beginning to offer financial incentives to merchants that agree to speed up the process.