Regulation

Even as the Biden administration ramped up sanctions against Russia on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen faced questions from Republican lawmakers who want to go further. Yellen, meanwhile, stressed the value of working together with allies.

The Philadelphia bank, headed by Vernon Hill, is already fighting two lawsuits from activist shareholder groups. It also risks being delisted by NASDAQ for indefinitely postponing the meeting.

Banks must comply quickly with fast-moving sanctions against the Kremlin and have to spot questionable Russian companies and wealthy individuals. At the same time, some need to deal with settlement risk of trades that involve rubles. Sophisticated data sharing and analysis are making it easier to do the job.

The White House's $5.8 trillion spending proposal to Congress includes more dollars for anti-money-laundering enforcement, Small Business Administration loan guarantee programs and affordable housing financed by community development financial institutions.

A push by Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis, one of the crypto industry’s staunchest supporters in Congress, to write a new law for digital assets is getting the support of at least one Democrat.

European bank regulators are set to start work later this year on adding climate-change risks to the framework for setting capital requirements, in a shift that would penalize lenders for failing to prepare for losses from extreme weather and the shift to clean energy.

A growing chorus of voices seems to share the view of former New York banking regulator Maria Vullo, who once said, “Toddlers play in sandboxes. Adults play by the rules.” But any movement away from the collaborative development of regulations for new financial services products would be a setback for consumer choice.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency slammed the San Antonio bank for anti-money-laundering violations. The penalty is the latest in a series of regulatory problems for USAA.

Four of five bills aimed at countering Russian aggression in Europe won significant bipartisan support from the House Financial Services Committee on Thursday. But the panel adopted a bill intended to expand the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's ability to hunt down Russian assets over fierce Republican opposition.

A supervisory letter detailing their failings in assessing exposure to a collapsed hedge fund suggests that the Federal Reserve believes banks are falling short in basic risk management.