Legal issues and news

Nicholas Takahashi and his team are accused of deliberately trying to poach the clients of a former colleague managing hundreds of millions in assets and producing more than $1 million a year in revenue.

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 Treasury's financial crimes arm alerted banks to the dangers of AI-powered fraud, urging close monitoring and swift reporting of any suspicious activity.

The Dallas-based bank is accusing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau of "pursuing an aggressive and overreaching investigation" into its role in a Treasury Department prepaid card program.

Recent multimillion-dollar elder fraud cases are leading to lawsuits and possible regulatory action. 

Anthony Gressak III, who also served as interim CEO of Nano Banc, allegedly obtained pandemic relief funds fraudulently.

As long as fraud-prevention efforts remain siloed and bank-specific, perpetrators remain free to employ the same strategies over and over. Banks need to do a better job of sharing information and collaborating.

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.

Los Angeles-based Dave got sued Tuesday by the Federal Trade Commission. Its stock price briefly plunged before soaring in the wake of Donald Trump's election.

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.

The agency said VyStar customers took on fees and credit report demerits because they could not access banking functions for months following an attempted upgrade.

This month's roundup includes items on TD Bank Group's asset cap and $3 billion in money-laundering fines, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's final rule on open banking and more.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a letter that the Department of Justice intentionally avoided threatening TD Bank's charter to operate. The Massachusetts Democrat also pressed the agency to prosecute bank executives.

A Supreme Court ruling from earlier this year regarding national bank preemption is already playing a prominent role in the banking sector's challenge to a state law on charge card fees.

The megabank disclosed that regulators are looking at its anti-money-laundering and sanctions compliance. Wells Fargo was recently hit with an enforcement action over similar matters.

The supposed glitch was simply check fraud. The bank is suing four people who allegedly took as much as $290,000 from the bank as part of the scheme.

The credit card heavyweight said that it expects its acquisition of rival Discover will close in early 2025, pending the approval of shareholders and regulators.

A federal appeals court this year reversed Townstone Financial's earlier victory, ruling the regulator had authority to apply a lending law to prospective applicants.