Links in “Banks”

Laws dating back to the 1860s prevent Los Angeles and other cities from suing the bank on behalf of Californians stuck with unwanted accounts and bogus fees, the San Francisco bank argued. Banks like Wells Fargo are only accountable to federal regulators. The bank is seeking to have the lawsuit moved to a federal venue. [6/15/15]

With efforts to shut down terrorist access to the U.S. and international banking system in full swing, U.S. Treasury Department says terrorism financiers may turn to virtual currencies to fund their operations. [6/15/15]

Amid reports that the hack attack on federal employees' data was worse that first acknowledged, the Senate failed to advance a piece of cybersecurity legislation that was tacked onto a sweeping defense bill. "The cyber issue is so important that we shouldn't deal with it by stapling it to something else." [6/15/15]

The new exam procedures for nonbank auto finance companies signal areas of future concentration for the Bureau in examinations of banks, too. [6/12/15]

The House has a large number of measures that would benefit community banks. Here's a rundown of some key ones. [6/12/15]

A nation-state cyber espionage group attacks a security firm that has been closely monitoring it over the past few years. The attackers hacked their way into the company's network to gather intelligence on the company's latest technologies for thwarting attacks. [6/11/15]

A letter was sent from 19 trade groups to ranking House leadership urging passage of a measure that would provide a hold-harmless period of enforcement for TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures. [6/11/15]

The FDIC and the NCUA release their quarterly reports, finding that the number of banks fell from 6,509 at the end of last quarter to 6,419 as of March 31. The number of federally insured credit unions fell to 6,206, exactly 285 fewer than at the same time last year. [6/11/15]

The hack of the federal government's Office of Personnel Management exposed a "lack of professionalism and knowledge" that is about 20 years behind the security curve. There was no IT security staff until 2013, IT was operated by contractors whose contracts were expired, and there was not even a comprehensive inventory of the network. Apparently, "the hackers knew this network better than the people that operated it." [6/10/15]

The CFPB hits another company for violations of Reg. Z loan originator compensation violations. The company paid fees to marketing services entities, whose owners included branch managers and loan originators. [6/10/15]