Scotiabank’s ‘digital factories,’ CFPB’s complaint leader, small-regional survival guide: Top stories of the week

October 25, 2019 4:26 PM

Why Scotiabank is building 'digital factories'

The Toronto-based bank has hired 1,200 people across five countries in North and South America to focus on digital features.

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'Absolute scam': Complaints about credit monitoring plans flood CFPB

Regulators have long warned the credit bureaus about deceptive marketing that causes consumers to sign up unwittingly for paid monitoring services. But the practice has persisted, according to complaint data.

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Bank of America's Merrill Edge goes to zero-dollar trades amid price war

Exterior of Bank of America Merrill Lynch building.

The move follows similar offers from other major brokerages in the last two weeks, as the wealth management industry races to woo clients with the lowest-priced products possible.

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A survival guide for small regionals

Midsize players like BankUnited, BOK and Fulton Financial plan to rely on selective M&A, catering to niches overlooked by big banks, aggressive recruitment of commercial lenders and other strategies to stimulate revenue growth.

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OCC lacks legal power to create fintech charter, court rules

The seal of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is displayed outside the organization's headquarters in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, March 20, 2019. The OCC this week fined Citibank $25 million for failing to offer some existing customers lower interest rates on mortgages or closing cost discounts that they were entitled to under a program for borrowers with a relationship with the bank. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

The judge sided with the New York State Department of Financial Services, which had sued the OCC over the proposed charter.

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Banking charter remains a long way off for fintechs after court ruling

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency contends that Industry Bancshares is "in troubled condition," citing outsized vulnerabilities to changes in interest rates and the company's reliance on "funding sources that may not be available in the event of further financial stress."

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

A regulatory cloud still follows fintech companies following a judge's decision throwing out the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's special-purpose charter.

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Regions set to replace core deposit system

The company says the upgrade will support future digital investments. It also said Tuesday that third-quarter profits climbed 8% but reported a sharp increase in criticized business loans.

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14 years after Walmart, banks face a new ILC bogeyman

Hiroshi Mikitani, chairman and chief executive officer of Rakuten Inc., speaks during the Rakuten Optimism conference in Yokohama, Japan, on Wednesday, July 31, 2019. The business conference focusing on 5G innovation will continue until August 3. Photographer: Keith Bedford/Bloomberg

Keith Bedford/Bloomberg

The Rakuten application has opened another front in the battle over nonfinancial companies' ownership of banks.

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What Supreme Court case means for CFPB's future

Brett Kavanaugh, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, leaves following a State of the Union address by U.S. President Donald Trump, not pictured, to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. Trump cast his fight against illegal migration to the U.S. as a moral struggle, and charged in his second State of the Union address that partisan investigations threaten economic progress under his administration. Photographer: Alex Wroblewski/Bloomberg

Alex Wroblewski/Bloomberg

Will the justices go further than answering constitutional questions about the bureau's leadership structure?

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Don't mess with rules curbing derivatives risk

Display of red electronic board of stock market quotes with down trend graph. Recession concept

interstid - stock.adobe.com

A regulatory proposal to ease the initial margin buffer on certain derivatives trading could be harmful to the economy.

(Full story here.)