Links in “Banks”

Evans Bank allegedly created a map of its lending area that excluded predominately African-American neighborhoods. The settlement calls for the bank to revise its lending area and to establish a settlement fund to promote homeownership and affordable housing in previously excluded areas. [9/11/15]

While securing record fines from major corporations for their roles in the economic meltdown, the Department of Justice has been stung by criticism that it coddled Wall Street execs. The DOJ has now issued new rules designed to change that. "Corporations can only commit crimes through flesh-and-blood people." It is, however, a pledge that may be hard to keep. [9/11/15]

"Your site is going under attack unless you pay 25 Bitcoin," says the email (25 Bitcoin is approximately $6,000). And the group has followed through with its threats. Financial services firms were targeted in 58% of its threats, with banks and credit unions accounting for 35% of those attacks. [9/10/15]

The new TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure rules require a complicated formula for title insurance that ends up withholding from the consumer the correct and accurate price, testified this title insurance executive to the House Financial Services subcommittee. [9/10/15]

U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy says Dodd-Frank missed the mark, with "unintended consequences" and "collateral damage" outweighing the positives of reform attempts. [9/10/15]

A survey finds that the industry's total of 314 million credit card accounts is the highest reading since late 2008. The growth is in all three risk categories (sub-prime, prime, and super-prime). [9/10/15]

Trade groups request "with great urgency" that the FFIEC members articulate their precise policies for examining and supervising financial institutions during the initial months after the TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure rules become effective on Oct. 3, 2015. [9/10/15]

The CFPB alleges the nation's two largest debt buyers attempted to collect debt that was unsubstantiated or inaccurate, as well as filing lawsuits against consumers without having the documentation to prove their allegations. [9/10/15]

To get around demanding extradition requirements and the secrecy laws of some foreign countries, U.S. law enforcement officials are luring people who help clients establish offshore shell companies to the U.S. by dangling in front of them lucrative opportunities. Two men with a private jet equipped with a safe insisted that the people they were meeting pack their cash in a Louis Vuitton bag because they thought real cops could never afford such an expensive item. [9/9/15]

Trade associations representing 14,000 financial institutions write to key members of the Senate banking committee that the increasing volume and complexity of regulations mean that "remaining community financial institutions are forced to hire new compliance staff, instead of loan officers." [9/9/15]