Legal issues and news

The disclosure of a key part of Wells Fargo's exam rating is fueling speculation that further regulatory action may soon be taken against the megabank and raising renewed questions about its regulator's oversight.

After a significant setback this week in the legal bid to unseat Mick Mulvaney as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, consumer groups are pinning their hopes on a second case they hope will provide a different result.

The CFPB's recent freeze on collecting any personally identifiable information from companies it supervises is slowing investigations and could ultimately cripple the agency's enforcement function — and that may be the point.

The two senators are set to introduce a bill that would force such firms to pay $100 per customer whose personal information was compromised.

Examiners focus too much on how many suspicious activity reports banks file and too little on the true riskiness of their activities, according to lawmakers and industry representatives.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said Tuesday that policymakers need to take a hard look at cryptocurrencies. Senate Banking Chairman Mike Crapo agreed the issue was ripe for a hearing.

Companies like Visa and Mastercard make decisions about security in secrecy, without enough input from banks and merchants.

A House bill would create a database to track true ownership of corporations; Wall Street regulator wants banks to improve disclosure of risks to consumers.

Account takeover's harder to quantify than payment fraud because it has so many elements and downstream impacts, writes Kevin Lee, trust and safety architect at Sift Science.

Keith Noreika, who made waves during his brief stint as acting Comptroller of the Currency, has rejoined Simpson Thacher Bartlett as a partner.

The widespread nature of the threat (most computer chips are vulnerable) and the reality that banks are always juicy targets mean bank officials must take a series of protective actions as soon as possible.

With their millions of customers, large retailers like Forever 21 have typically been the hardest hit, writes Mark Cline, a vice president at Netsurion.

With most of the major card brands deciding to no longer require signature authorization on card transactions, merchants want to see more network rules go the way of the dinosaur.

The Dodd-Frank Act gets more attention when it comes to regulatory burden, but the Bank Secrecy Act and other anti-laundering statutes arguably present even more of a compliance challenge for bankers.

Payment fraudsters are agile and adaptive, and they change the items they target depending on what will be easiest to steal and resell, writes Michael Reitblat, CEO and founder of Forter.

Agency plans to address issues and regulation of cybercurrencies; OCC says the bank failed to fix problems cited in a 2012 consent order.

San Francisco-based Arxan Technologies, which got its start in 2001 providing security tools to protect gaming and medical-device applications, says financial services companies are one of the fastest-growing sectors seeking help in barricading their mobile apps from hackers.

The OCC said Thursday that the bank has yet to fully meet the conditions of a 2012 consent order requiring it to address problems in its Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money-laundering compliance programs.

Sen. Sherrod Brown called on the Trump administration to support the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's enforcement action against PHH Corp., which agreed to a $45 million settlement this week related to foreclosure abuses.

North Korean counterfeits haven't been documented since 2008, but recent sanctions may have pressured the country to return to making undetectable U.S. cash.