Legal issues and news

The group of banks would pay $68 million to settle the lawsuit, which originally estimated damages at $340 million.

Republicans have urged the Supreme Court to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by tying its funding to appropriations. But regulatory experts say that a ruling against the CFPB would threaten the funding of other similarly structured agencies including the Federal Reserve Board, the Farm Credit System and other regulators that are funded through fees or assessments.

The Supreme Court's ruling on affirmative action in higher education has opened the door to challenges of diversity initiatives in the financial services sector, legal experts say. Internship programs for minority students could face scrutiny, as could efforts to increase workforce diversity.

The lawsuit against Prehired involves a relatively new product that consumer advocates say is akin to a student loan — and should be subject to far more protections.

With no settlement in sight, Spencer Savings Bank's case against a group of former depositors it says conspired with Larry Seidman to force a conversion appears headed for a courtroom battle.

Gacki, who has served since 2019 as director of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, will replace acting Fincen Director Himamauli Das. Her appointment comes as the Biden administration seeks to enforce sanctions against Russia and implement rules aimed at identifying undisclosed shell company owners.

The plaintiff that brought the case on behalf of the state says the banks inflated interest rates through a private, invitation-only VRDO index that influenced SIFMA's weekly index.

Management, in exchange, has agreed to assist company lawyers in potentially lucrative actions against firms they blame for BlockFi's collapse including FTX and failed crypto hedge-fund Three Arrows Capital.

In an amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court Tuesday, the bicameral group of 132 Republican members of Congress argued that an appeals court was right to rule last year that the Bureau's funding system is unlawful.

Mass arbitration is a fact of life in modern consumer finance litigation. Those hoping it will go away through court decisions or legislative change are primed to be sorely disappointed.

Some of the biggest banks on Wall Street are expected to go to trial in Illinois next month to face allegations they inflated interest rates on bonds to finance public works.

The proposal would bring companies cited for civil enforcement actions under its scope to bar them from doing business with the government-sponsored enterprises.

The company directed its bilingual team to steer customers away from products with no closing costs toward "predatory lending options" without disclosing the costs, in part by refusing to provide Spanish-language written materials, according to a lawsuit filed by current and former members of the company's bilingual mortgage sales team.

Lloyds Banking Group, Natwest Group, Bank of Scotland and others will use the artificial intelligence tool in preparation for new rules that will require them to compensate customers affected by "authorized push payment" scams.

A challenge to the SEC's use of administrative law judges could have big implications for bank regulators. The FDIC, Fed, OCC and CFPB could be forced to go to federal court in cases that would otherwise be handled in-house.

This week in global news, Mizuho opens generative AI to staff, BBVA organizes to fight fraud and more.

Synthetic fraud — which combines real and false identifying information — has been a niche variety of identity theft for some time. But recent advancements in artificial intelligence and people's access to it might bring it into the mainstream in a big way.

One area of focus for the bank is using advanced artificial intelligence to detect business-email compromise. The payment messaging network Swift and online gambling host Caesars are also using AI to stop people from gaming their systems.