Regulation

Whoever is named SEC chair by the president-elect is likely to take a lighter hand on crypto, AI and "regulation by enforcement."

Small Business Bank in Lennox, Kansas received another cease-and-desist order from the Federal Reserve for failing to comply with anti-money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act requirements for the second time in 14 months.

The companies held out hope that they'd get skeptical regulators to sign off on their $286 million deal before determining that canceling it was in their best interests.

In its semiannual supervision and regulation report, the Federal Reserve flagged climbing loan delinquencies and a rising number of large bank citations for governance and controls.

The bank's U.S. operations will be closely monitored during a yearslong probationary period, during which any sign of backsliding could trigger swift punitive action.

The agency had been on the verge of downgrading Philadelphia-based Republic First Bancorp's CAMELS rating to the lowest level but opted for a less severe remedy after a November 2020 visit.

With plans to open 100 banking centers in "banking deserts," the $3 trillion JPMorgan Chase is arguably the nation's largest community bank. Other big banks should take notice and follow suit, and regulators should encourage them.

Daria Sewell pleaded not guilty to possessing customers' personally identifiable information. The case adds to the Canadian bank's anti-money-laundering woes.

The plea agreement, which includes a fine of more than $1.4 billion, penalizes TD for systemic money laundering violations. "We have the ability to profit, and we should be able to profit, but not at the expense of the law," said U.S. District Judge Esther Salas.

An uptick in fines associated with anti-money-laundering failures demonstrates that U.S. banks still have much work to do in terms of optimizing their internal systems to identify and stop the flow of dirty money.