Legal issues and news

Stories about data breaches, fraud and one neobank were reader favorites this year.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will face an existential crisis in 2026 between the Trump administration's efforts to shut down the agency and the employee union and consumer advocates who want to stop them.

The bank regulator is proposing to strengthen national preemption in the wake of conflicting decisions in related court cases.

Michigan State University Federal Credit Union avoided $2.57 million in fraud exposure through blocking AI deepfake fraud calls with Pindrop products.

A group of 22 Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Russell Vought, the bureau and the Federal Reserve, arguing that the administration's position that the CFPB cannot be funded is wrong.

Proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services recommended approval of Fifth Third's $10.9 billion proposed acquisition of Comerica.

Terron T. Brown used stolen mail and social media recruits to defraud banks such as PNC and Bank of America of millions, highlighting a rising industry threat.

It is long past time to revisit the regulatory regime implementing the Bank Secrecy Act. In a good sign, key elements of the Trump administration seem to be in alignment on reform.

A federal appeals court agreed to have the full bench rehear arguments by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's union about whether the Trump administration planned to gut the agency through mass firings.

Nine banks and lenders were impacted by the yearslong, $923 million fraud enterprise, according to an indictment of top Tricolor executives. The banks were not publicly named, but JPMorganChase, Fifth Third, Barclays, Louisiana-based Origin Bancorp and Texas-based Triumph Financial have said they would take write-downs.

The Department of Justice wants Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to state if the central bank is profitable again and can, therefore, fund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Passkey technology offers a superior method of authenticating customer identification, both in terms of convenience and security. It's time for banks to finally make the transition.

New data shows a 21% jump in fraud attempts during Thanksgiving week, with automated bots and credential stuffing leading the charge.

HoldCo Asset Management says that shareholders should reject Fifth Third's proposed acquisition of Comerica during a Jan. 6 vote due to what it calls an "unacceptable" negotiation process and the possible upside from another deal.

Part of the growing "phishing-as-a-service" economy, the Spiderman kit offers novice hackers sophisticated tools to target customers of major EU institutions.

Know-your-customer rules are a longtime fixture of bank compliance regimes, but as autonomous AI "agents" increasingly access banking systems, new rules for verifying their status are desperately needed.

Mary Carole McDonnell allegedly posed as a McDonnell-Douglas heiress to secure loans. The FBI believes she is currently hiding in Dubai.

The DOJ says the Ukrainian national helped coordinate Russian state-sponsored DDoS attacks against banks internationally.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to issue an interim final rule soon on consumer financial data rights because the agency expects to run out of money by Dec. 31.