The Latest

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  Seacoast bets big on The Villages in $710.8M deal

  The acquisitive bank will buy VBI, which touts a more than 50% deposit share in Florida’s largest retirement community, in a transaction set to close in the fourth quarter.

  Commercial

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  Column

  Dive Deposits: RBC has its eyes on the end of summer with RTO push

  The Canadian bank wants its hybrid employees in the office four days a week starting in September, something it's been laying groundwork for since 2023.

  Regulations & Policy

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  Ex-Goldman exec gets 2-year sentence over 1MDB scandal

  Prosecutors sought leniency for Tim Leissner based on his cooperation, which the bank pushed back on, saying the former executive’s efforts are “deserving of sanction, not praise.”

  Commercial

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  Baltimore drops lawsuit over CFPB’s move to return funds

  Bureau leadership found there was no mechanism to transfer money the Federal Reserve had given the agency. Consumer advocates warned they could sue again if the CFPB tries again to defund itself.

  Regulations & Policy

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  SEC drops Binance lawsuit

  The regulator sued the world’s largest crypto exchange, its founder and its U.S. affiliate in 2023.

  Technology

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  UBS to sell hedge fund business to Cantor Fitzgerald

  The Swiss lender’s O’Connor unit, with $11 billion in assets under management, will return to the purview of Bill Ferri, a UBS veteran and O’Connor founder who’s now at Cantor Fitzgerald.

  Commercial

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  Bank profits rise in Q1

  The FDIC’s 4,462 insured banks saw a 1.16% return on assets and net income of $70.6 billion in the first quarter.

  Commercial

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  Wells Fargo’s Scharf assured over asset cap’s potential end

  “We’re not done, but we’re a hell of a lot closer to the end than the beginning, at this point,” the CEO said Wednesday.

  Commercial

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  Blockchain firm, NJ county ink deal to digitize $240B of deeds on-chain

  Balcony, using the Avalanche blockchain, says that the Bergen County effort is the largest blockchain-based deed tokenization project in U.S. history.

  Technology

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  Circle files for IPO

  The stablecoin issuer, seeking to go public since 2021, has shut down recent rumors about selling to potential buyers.

  Technology

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  Fed stress test court case paused until Aug. 1

  Trade groups cited the central bank’s “progress” in proposing that lenders’ capital requirements be determined through a two-year average of stress test results.

  Regulations & Policy

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  Citi sells Polish consumer business to VeloBank

  Upon closing, it will be the 10th international consumer business Citi has sold since 2021. The bank will maintain its institutional business in Poland, as it has elsewhere, following the sale.

  Commercial

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  BancFirst to buy Oklahoma lender hit with DOJ redlining order

  BancFirst seeks to buy American Bank of Oklahoma, which agreed to pay $1.15 million in August 2023 to settle a Justice Department investigation for failing to monitor and address fair lending risks.

  Commercial

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  Supreme Court exempts Fed from Trump firings

  A carve-out in last week’s SCOTUS emergency decision on agency official firings “poses a puzzle,” because the central bank’s independence rests on the same foundations as other federal agencies, a dissenting justice wrote.

  Regulations & Policy

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  CFPB to yank ‘unlawful’ open banking rule

  That move bends to bank groups that filed a lawsuit last year to block the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule aimed at making it easier for consumers to move their financial accounts.

  Payments

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  DOJ, CFPB seek to end Trustmark redlining consent order early

  The agencies argue the bank paid its $5 million penalty and put money in a loan subsidy program. But the case signaled the start of a concerted Biden-era effort to fight lending discrimination.

  Regulations & Policy

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  Santander’s Openbank opens first US physical location

  The Miami location "is another opportunity to bridge our digital and in-person experience to deliver a truly differentiated offering,” Openbank US CEO Swati Bhatia said.

  Retail

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  TD to cut 2% of workforce, wind down $3B portfolio

  The bank expects to record up to $505 million in restructuring charges over the next several quarters, said CFO Kelvin Tran. The portfolio, meanwhile, is tied to its U.S. point-of-sale financing business.

  Commercial

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  JPMorgan Chase launches geopolitics center

  CEO Jamie Dimon has long beat the drum on geopolitical awareness. Now, his bank wants to help clients make sense of it all.

  Commercial

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  PNC to buy Aqueduct to boost private equity capital-raise potential

  The deal is expected to close in midsummer, the companies said. Financial terms were not disclosed.

  Commercial

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  CFTC’s Kristin Johnson to exit, shrinking team further

  Johnson’s pending departure this year follows announcements last week that fellow commissioners Christy Goldsmith Romero and Summer Mersinger would leave at the end of this month.

  Regulations & Policy

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  Inside Ally’s customer referral program

  The effort, launched last year, accounts for about 15% of the digital bank’s account volume, an executive said. Now Ally is adding a QR code and wants to use opportune moments to promote the program.

  Retail

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  Circle co-founder to build new ‘AI-native’ bank

  Catena Labs recently secured $18 million in a seed funding round, which it plans to use to build a bank designed to serve the emerging AI economy, said co-founder and CEO Sean Neville.

  Payments

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  FDIC eyes change in reserve ratio calculation

  Acting Chair Travis Hill suggested the agency use total liabilities rather than insured deposits as the denominator in the formula. The FDIC on Tuesday also rescinded a bank merger policy update from last year.

  Regulations & Policy

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  House follows Senate in overturning OCC merger review rule

  The joint resolution to roll back the regulator’s 2024 merger rule now heads to the president for a signature.

  Regulations & Policy

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