Legal issues and news

California officials briefly raised hopes among digital currency proponents Friday by releasing a statement that they would drop plans to regulate digital currency businesses and instead defer to the legislature.

The fraud detection services provider Feedzai has raised $17.5 million in its Series B financing round.

The Bancorp in Wilmington, Del., has again delayed the filing of its 2014 annual report and is also late in submitting its first-quarter results, it said in a news release Friday.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including the financial inequalities exposed by the Baltimore riots and whether the changes to Dodd-Frank proposed in Sen. Richard Shelby's regulatory relief plan go too far.

A New York woman convicted of participating in an identity-theft ring was sentenced Thursday to two to six years in state prison. The ring stole more than $850,000 from hundreds of JPMorgan Chase customers.

State Street Corp. said it expects to face an enforcement action by the Federal Reserve and the Massachusetts Division of Banks after it failed to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money laundering rules and U.S. economic sanctions.

Vendors that specialize in Bank Secrecy Act compliance can help ease community banks' regulatory burden while strengthening their controls.

Global financial inclusion efforts have made big strides, but documentation requirements continue to hinder access to financial services, and women and the poor remain disproportionately underserved, according to the World Bank's annual study.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, issued subpoenas Monday for several federal agencies, asking for a trove of documents concerning ongoing investigations that he said they are obstructing.

A statement by a foreign regulator that it might penalize banks that drop businesses due to heightened supervisory risk has spooked U.S. institutions who worry domestic agencies could follow suit.

U.S. authorities have fined the San Francisco startup $700,000 over violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, according to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's Tuesday press release.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including a case for the CFPB's debt collection regulations and the dangers of "real-time" transaction monitoring.

Regulators' latest guide for examining anti-laundering procedures lacks wholesale changes, but institutions still must decipher minute changes with potentially big impacts.

For more than a decade, U.S. regulators have been advising bankers to know more about their customers than who they are. In the next five years that may become the global norm as technology allows more granular transaction monitoring.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including thoughts on derisking, biometric technology and Paul Volcker’s proposal to reform the regulatory system.

In light of a recent op-ed about pawnbrokers denied banking services, it's worth reiterating that the FDIC encourages banks to assess individual businesses for risk rather than declining to provide services to entire categories of customers.

The National Pawnbrokers Association argues that its members have been unfairly swept up in the Justice Department initiative known as Operation Choke Point. But banks say Choke Point's not to blame: they're closing the accounts of cash-intensive businesses in order to ensure compliance with anti-money-laundering rules.

As cybercriminals demonstrate their deep knowledge of banks' fraud and security rules, some institutions are deploying software that analyzes customers' and other entities' behavior for abnormalities.

Even small U.S. banks can end up doing business with institutions all across the world, but here are some jurisdictions were doing so is either outright forbidden or requires additional scrutiny.

BancorpSouth in Tupelo, Miss., has been freed from a consent order tied to Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money-laundering compliance.