Links in “Banks”

A bill introduced by House member Jeff Miller, Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, would exclude business loans to veterans from the statutory cap on member business loans. [7/11/14]

Wells Fargo, which has been historically known to avoid costly traps other institutions fall into, experienced a downturn in profits for the second quarter as compared to the same period last year. That and other factors, including a metric of the bank's profitability, have disappointed investors. However, there may be a silver lining to this cloud. [7/11/14]

The speed with which hackers can create new strains of viruses is shocking. We already have some new attackers like HijackRAT and Svpeng that are causing mischief for institutions of all shapes and sizes. This article delineates five ways financial institutions can defend themselves against this mobile malware. [7/10/14]

This slideshow gives an overview of the seven heaviest sanctions-related penalties against banks, from the recent BNP Paribas to 2009's fine against Credit Suisse. [7/10/14]

Despite an increase in consumer spending, bank card delinquencies are at 2.44% of all accounts compared to the 15-year average of 3.82%. As James Chessen, ABA's chief economist, explains, "More and more consumers are using their credit cards as a payment vehicle, paying off or paying down their balances each month." [7/10/14]

Need to offer employee benefits but not sure how? Here's an overview of institutional asset management for all the CFOs out there. [7/10/14]

The OCC announced a rule that results in raising the assessments on banks and federal savings associations with total assets over $40 billion. The marginal assessment rate for these institutions is expected to increase by 14.5%. [7/10/14]

Consumer borrowing is on the rise after a not-so-hot first quarter. The $19.6 billion increase reflects a rebounding economy and greater consumer confidence. [7/9/14]

In addition to being among the regulations whose framers worked extra hard to come up with a pronounceable and relevant acronym (along with E-SIGN and the USA PATRIOT Act), the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing (SAFE) Act, is also among regulations with violations that can be readily avoided. AffirmX's Senior Analyst Coppelia Padgett has compiled a list of the five most common violations of the SAFE Act she's observed from her audits for financial institutions across the country. [7/9/14]

Citigroup—the third biggest bank by assets—is said to be approaching a $7 billion dollar settlement for allegedly deceiving investors about the quality of mortgage bonds before 2008's financial crisis. [7/9/14]