Legal issues and news

Apple Pay and cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have a lot of appeal for banks looking to stay at the cutting edge of digital payments. But security and compliance risks are part and parcel of these innovations.

Observers fear state regulator Benjamin Lawsky's proposal to model anti-laundering reviews after Sarbanes-Oxley requirements could thin ranks of compliance specialists and slow monitoring.

Community and regional banks should be subjected to simpler rules than very large banks, the chairman and CEO of the Buffalo, N.Y., company said. In fact, size is the wrong determinant for risk-based regulation, he said.

A stolen company laptop has left customers of Pioneer Savings Bank vulnerable, according to a consumer alert from the New York State Department of Financial Services.

Banks process billions of dollars in international remittances, and the business is growing. But complex competing forces — namely anti-laundering rules and pressure from humanitarian groups — make the decision to stay in the business a difficult one.

Trade-based money laundering happens outside the financial system. But it can still create major issues for banks because criminals typically deposit their profits in bank accounts.

International remittances grew at a number of banks last year, according to new data, but anti-money-laundering rules may make the fee-based business too expensive to keep.

New York could soon start holding bank executives personally responsible for their institutions' anti-money-laundering controls, the state's top financial regulator said Wednesday.

Capital One has received requests for information from federal regulators about its anti-money-laundering program and check casher clients, as authorities lean on banks to do a more thorough job policing their customers — and their customers' customers.

Decisions about when and how to implement EMV technology in credit and debit cards are difficult. Many banks have decided to slowly phase it in, despite the fact the delay will open them up to greater potential liability.

Right now, financial institutions are not required to know the identity of the living, breathing person behind accounts owned by legal entities. The beneficial ownership rules proposed by Fincen would help expose money launderers, tax evaders and criminals.

HSBC has spent billions of dollars in compliance and legal costs, but the damaging scandals keep coming. Renewed attention on the problems at its Swiss private bank could fuel the debate about whether banks this size are too big to manage.

Hackers in several financial services industry data breaches targeted customer-contact information that is often thought of as less sensitive. But crooks can use that data and other bits of stolen info to do great harm.

The New Jersey Assembly is weighing whether to pursue legislation that would make the state a haven for digital currency businesses.

Stephen Platt, regulatory investigations consultant and author of "Criminal Capital: How the Finance Industry Facilitates Crime," explains his misgivings about the idea of a shared know-your-customer registry for the industry.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued a letter Wednesday emphasizing that financial institutions should take a measured approach to banking relationships rather than cutting ties with entire lines of businesses.

Dumping entire categories of clients is a crude and inappropriate reaction to large fines, says Stephen Platt, author of Criminal Capital: How the Finance Industry Facilitates Crime." However, he says, regulators should hold a dialogue with banks and attempt to accommodate businesses that carry high risk but whose services are desperately required, such as remittances to war-torn Somalia.

Citigroup has agreed to change its policies that prevented low-income consumers from opening checking and savings accounts.

Hudson City Bancorp in Paramus, N.J., reported lower quarterly profits as its loan book keeps shrinking.

Fake identity fraud is growing, due to the plentiful array of consumer account and card data available in the wake of massive data breaches. It's a crime banks find almost impossible to detect and deter.