Links in “Banks”

Federal Trade Commission continues its crackdown on companies that target consumers in financial distress. Bayview Solutions of Florida and Cornerstone and Company of California are accused of posting the financial details and other personal information about 70,000 people online, making them vulnerable to identity theft and debt fraud. [11/13/14]

Report predicts that the U.S. migration to EMV cards won't stop the rise in fraud in transactions where the card is not present, such as online transactions, but it won't cause the increase, either. CNP fraud is likely to continue to increase as online transactions continue to increase. [11/12/14]

The CFPB is proposing to relax the timing requirements for creditors to redisclose interest rate–dependent charges and loan terms from the same day to the next business day. ABA appreciates the thought, but argues that unless that timeframe is pushed to three days, it would create consumer disadvantages and burden lending operations needlessly. [11/12/14]

ABA and CBA write letter to CFPB cautioning against setting an unrealistic file error rate standard for HMDA submissions that would result in costly file level reviews in the field that are unlikely to change the overall results and are just as likely to result in new errors, due to the "human element" in file reviews. [11/12/14]

The Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program is charging a former president of a Florida bank, a former CFO of a San Francisco-based bank, and two former directors of an Illinois-based bank with defrauding their institutions that were recipients of TARP funds. [11/12/14]

A study by a group of professors on how well consumers understand arbitration agreements misses the boat by failing to examine what actually happens to consumers when they are involved in an arbitration. Such an unbalanced approach creates a distorted picture that could create a shaky foundation for future actions by the CFPB, which is conducting its own study on the subject. [11/11/14]

They protected us. Here are tips for protecting our nation's elderly veterans from financial abuse. [11/11/14]

FinCEN's recent message instructing financial institutions not to "de-risk" whole industries, such as money service businesses, in favor of making decisions on a case-by-case basis is not exactly new. FinCEN issued a similar statement a decade ago. But it is clear that federal authorities are on the defensive that their approach has been heavy handed as of late. [11/11/14]

Study finds that federal employees in more than a dozen agencies are far from immune when it comes to bogus phishing emails, opening malware-laden websites, or being tricked by scammers into sharing confidential information. [11/10/14]

ABA sends this comment letter to the regulatory agencies regarding proposed changes to the Q&A on the Community Reinvestment Act. The trade group presses for changes that it hopes will reward banks for more engagement in their communities, not create new compliance hurdles. [11/10/14]