Pot banking firm targets talent, M&A following SPAC deal

Safe Harbor Financial is looking for a second sponsor bank, and has its eye on adding an insurance offering.

By Anna Hrushka • Oct. 3, 2022

Barclays takes $361M penalty in debt-product oversale error

The bank failed to establish internal controls related to tracking its securities sales in real time, the SEC said. Bank employees may face disciplinary action or pay cuts in connection with the findings, Barclays said.

By Dan Ennis • Sept. 30, 2022

Explore the Trendline➔

Artificial intelligence

Banks are enthusiastic about AI’s promises. But can they get customers on board, and will regulators let the innovation happen?

By Banking Dive staff

6 largest US banks to join Fed’s first-ever climate scenario exercise

The “exploratory” analysis will launch in early 2023 and be separate from bank stress tests, the Fed said, adding it will not have capital or supervisory implications.

By Anna Hrushka • Sept. 29, 2022

Digital banks, credit unions should factor into merger reviews: Fed’s Bowman

Potential combinations should hinge on risk analysis, not deposit market share, in an update to 1995 guidelines, the central bank governor said Wednesday.

By Dan Ennis • Sept. 29, 2022

SEC, CFTC fine 11 banks $1.8B in record-keeping probe

Bank of America took the heaviest combined penalty, at $225 million, over the use of unapproved platforms for business communications. Citi, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and four others were fined $200 million.

By Dan Ennis • Sept. 28, 2022

Deutsche Bank settles for $26.3M over Epstein, oligarch ties

Bank executives and management routinely overruled compliance staff to continue working with high-risk and ultra-rich clients, the 2020 suit claims.

By Gabrielle Saulsbery • Sept. 26, 2022

NYC official urges BlackRock to clear up ‘alarming’ ESG ambiguity

The city's comptroller asked the asset manager to publish a plan that clarifies its net-zero emissions pledge, including concrete steps and a timeline. BlackRock’s ESG stance has also drawn fire from fossil-fuel advocates.

By Dan Ennis • Sept. 23, 2022

Republicans grill bank CEOs on handling of new merchant gun code

GOP lawmakers, during a wide-ranging hearing Wednesday, demanded the CEOs of the nation’s top banks share how they plan to respond to a new category code for gun and ammunition retailers.

By Anna Hrushka • Sept. 22, 2022

Diversity, inflation, payments fraud to take center stage at hearings

Democratic lawmakers are expected to grill big-bank CEOs this week on reports of consumer abuses, while Republicans will likely target executives they say have caved to social pressures.

By Anna Hrushka • Sept. 20, 2022

Morgan Stanley fined $35M by SEC over improper data disposal

The bank hired a company with no data-destruction experience to decommission hard drives and servers, which were sold to a third party and auctioned with some unencrypted customer data intact, the regulator found.

By Gabrielle Saulsbery • Sept. 20, 2022

OCC frees Capital One from consent order tied to 2019 breach

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency determined the bank had reached a level of “safety and soundness” no longer requiring extra oversight regarding a leak of 106 million customers’ data.

By Gabrielle Saulsbery • Sept. 19, 2022

Biden administration releases digital asset regulation framework

The Biden administration wants the SEC and the CFTC to “aggressively pursue investigations and enforcement actions against unlawful practices in the digital assets space.”

By Anna Hrushka • Sept. 16, 2022

OCC taps NYDFS veteran for top climate risk role

Yue Chen had served as the inaugural executive deputy superintendent for climate at the New York agency. Acting Comptroller Michael Hsu said last week the OCC would soon name new climate leadership.

By Anna Hrushka • Sept. 13, 2022

BlackRock blasts Republican AGs’ ‘misconceptions’ on its ESG role

The asset manager doesn’t “dictate to companies what specific emission targets they should meet,” BlackRock’s head of external affairs wrote in a letter. Rather, it asks companies to disclose climate-related data.

By Dan Ennis • Sept. 9, 2022

OCC zeroes in on bank-fintech partnership risk

The growth of fintechs and banking-as-a-service mirrors a rise in shadow banking that sparked the 2008 financial crisis, Acting Comptroller Michael Hsu said at a banking conference Wednesday.

By Anna Hrushka • Sept. 8, 2022

10 takeaways from Michael Barr’s first speech as Fed’s supervision czar

The regulator pushed a tiered set of capital requirements and stricter living wills for regional banks. He also clarified the central bank’s stance on climate risk.

By Dan Ennis • Sept. 8, 2022

Fed ends 2012 AML enforcement action against HSBC

The London-based bank had been under the order since December 2012 after the Justice Department identified “stunning failures of oversight.”

By Anna Hrushka • Sept. 2, 2022

JPMorgan Chase’s Frankfurt offices raided in tax-fraud probe

The cum-ex scandal exploited a loophole in German law that allowed multiple parties to claim refunds on a dividend tax that was paid once. Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Barclays offices have also been searched.

By Dan Ennis • Aug. 31, 2022

JPMorgan Chase, State Street push back against CBDC

In comments to the Federal Reserve, trade groups and Wall Street banks stressed the risks of a digital dollar and largely rejected the idea that it would accomplish stated goals.

By Lynne Marek • Aug. 29, 2022

Citi to wind down its Russia retail presence

The bank expects to incur roughly $170 million in costs, mostly over the next 18 months, in a move expected to affect about 2,300 employees and 15 branches.

By Dan Ennis • Aug. 25, 2022

FDIC orders FTX, 4 other crypto firms to halt ‘false and misleading’ claims

Brett Harrison, FTX’s president, responded on Twitter, saying the company “really didn’t mean to mislead anyone.” The FDIC cited a deleted tweet from Harrison in its letter to the company.

By Anna Hrushka • Aug. 22, 2022

Citi fined $14.8M over faulty trade monitoring

The bank had almost no oversight into the second-most serious category of risks on nearly half of trades during an 18-month span, the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority said.

By Dan Ennis • Aug. 19, 2022

CFPB urges up-to-date data safeguards for finance firms

The agency suggested companies embrace multifactor authentication, password management and timely software updates to avoid violating federal consumer protection laws.

By Anna Hrushka • Aug. 15, 2022

FDIC signals greater scrutiny of commercial real estate loans

“CRE loan concentrations add dimensions of risk that necessitate continued attention from banks and their regulators, especially as the pandemic lingers and uncertainties remain,” the FDIC said last week.

By Anna Hrushka • Aug. 9, 2022

Warren asks OCC to scrap Trump-era crypto guidance — and recent work

The OCC, FDIC and Fed said in November they planned to provide more clarity this year on permissible digital asset activity. A letter from the senator last week challenges the agencies to follow through.

By Dan Ennis • Aug. 8, 2022