Legal issues and news

There are good, bad and ugly stories about how marijuana entrepreneurs deal with taxes and other financial management issues while having little access to banking services.

Cybercriminals and hackers are increasingly targeting people, and not just technology, in an attempt to breach financial institutions.

Commercial bank clients are increasingly looking to replace physical corporate cards with virtual ones to streamline bookkeeping and limit risk. The adoption of such solutions is a good sign for mobile payments overall.

Compliance officers are terrified of a New York State Department of Financial Services proposal that could make them criminally liable for failings in their firm’s anti-money-laundering programs, according to industry representatives.

With the stakes so high for compliance officers, their rights and responsibilities should be clearly defined, including a safe harbor for those who play by the rules.

Inefficient, paper-bound processes, oligopolies that can charge high prices, the Rube Goldberg structure of correspondent banking, and excessive regulation all make it expensive for migrants to send money home. Technology is a big part of the answer.

The Bancorp in Wilmington, Del., named Sepideh Behram to the role of chief compliance officer. Her hiring comes as the $4.8 billion-asset company works to shore up its risk and compliance management.

The pressure on banks to become less risky backfires when they respond by curtailing services that are vital in a functioning financial system.

Nacha, the bank industry group that oversees the automated clearing house network, has appointed six industry executives to its board.

The marijuana industry is still hampered by its own banking crisis, but the rigidity of federal laws is not stopping all advances in financial services for the sector.

Federal and state banking regulators are still struggling with how to come to grips with banks whose clients are heavily involved in digital currencies like bitcoin — and that may be curbing interest from many in the financial industry.

The potential for more convergence between financial products and physical products raises a whole host of data and privacy issues that banks must deal with proactively.

Money-laundering episodes included a purported Whitey Bulger associate looting a church's coffers and the arrest of a Houston socialite on gambling-related charges.

Authentication methods meant to keep cybercriminals from taking over accounts can also lock out legitimate users. This old dilemma is growing more vexing as cybercriminals get better at impersonating customers and as regulators increasingly push multifactor authentication.

A Colorado credit union's failed court battle against the Fed has led to renewed calls for U.S. lawmakers to offer stronger protections to financial institutions that provide banking services to legal pot growers and distributors.

After enduring a slew of post-crisis scandals, bankers are beginning to see the light on becoming stewards of their organizations.

Bank regulators will stiffen their requirements and identity theft will escalate, but banks will toughen up their defenses.

A new digital currency backed by gold is billing itself as a more compliant, liquid and ultimately reliable store of value than decentralized systems such as bitcoin.

Regulators and institutions appear far apart when it comes to so-called "de-risking," in which banks drop businesses for fear of enhanced regulatory scrutiny, even while policymakers are stepping up their scrutiny of terrorist financing prevention in the wake of recent attacks.

Despite increased investment and development in the consumer payments space around mag stripe, EMV and contactless payments solutions, there is still a huge concern when it comes to data theft.