Receiving Wide Coverage ...
The Card Fraud Blame Game: The switch to chip-enabled cards should be pretty smooth for the average consumer, according to the New York Times. While it may be jarring to dip rather than swipe cards at retailers' payment terminals, the gesture should be old hat soon enough. The paper also raises the question of whether chip cards would be more effective at preventing fraud if customers were simultaneously required to enter four-digit pin numbers at the checkout counter, as they are in Europe.
A separate article in the paper takes a broader look at the battle between retailers and financial institutions over who should bear the costs of online data theft and what more can be done to ward off cybercriminals. The article suggests that banks will continue to be held responsible for losses in the short term, since only an estimated 19% of credit and debit cards are currently chip-enabled.
Speaking of clashes between banks and retailers, Home Depot has asked a federal court in Atlanta to toss a lawsuit brought by banks over the retailer's 2014 data breach. Banks are suing Home Depot in an effort to get the home improvement behemoth to cover cardholders' losses.
Financial Times
Anne-Marie Slaughter's new book on the struggle for gender equality at home and at work is smart but short on solutions, according to a review by Emma Jacobs.
New York Times
Are private equity and hedge fund firms acting against the best interests of homeowners facing foreclosure? These firms have snapped up more than 100,000 delinquent mortgages in the years since the housing crisis, but critics argue that they rush foreclosures and bungle loan modification requests. The article focuses on complaints against the private equity firm Lone Star, which bought a pool of 17,000 distressed mortgages from the Department of Housing and Urban Development in June 2014.
Washington Post
Fifth Third Bank has agreed to a $21 million settlement over charges of auto-lending discrimination. The settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Justice also requires Fifth Third to lower the amount by which auto dealers can mark up interest rates for borrowers.
Elsewhere ...
Six big banks have expressed their support for a climate-change deal when the United Nations meets later this year. "The banks said that putting a price on carbon emissions is crucial to increasing investments in clean energy," the Huffington Post reports. The banks that signed the deal are Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo.
