States

Predatory lending is now a criminal offense punishable with jail time in California following the enactment of California Assembly Bill 3108 in September. The legislation expanded the legal definition of “mortgage fraud” to include any mortgage broker or person who originates a loan with the intent to defraud someone. Read on »

Republic First Bank, a financial institution closed by regulators earlier this year, was charged with unlawful mortgage redlining and discrimination by the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General in partnership with the state’s Division on Civil Rights. Read on »

Federal and state regulators issued an enforcement action citing consumer compliance deficiencies with UniBank and its parent company, U&I Financial Corp., following a lawsuit revealing the bank’s involvement in a Ponzi scheme. Read on »

Two Minnesota-based debt settlement companies agreed to cease operations in the state after regulators determined they were collecting illegal fees from customers and misrepresenting service offerings. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced a settlement between the companies and his office, requiring the companies to provide full refunds to consumers charged illegal upfront fees. Read on »

Noting the unique risks posed by certain artificial intelligence solutions, the New York State Department of Financial Services issued guidance urging financial services organizations to evaluate and address these types of issues when developing cybersecurity strategies. Read on »

The Department of Justice entered into the first redlining settlement with a credit union after finding the institution’s lending practices failed to provide equal access to credit for majority-minority neighborhoods in its service area. Read on »

Various state and federal regulators released new regulatory announcements, as well as insight about the general sentiment among community bankers. Multiple developments have implications for lenders and financial institutions serving rural communities, while others have a broader scope of influence. Read on »

Federal and state regulators are stepping in to help financial institutions recover from the effects of Hurricane Helene, offering guidance and regulatory flexibility in light of the challenges entities and borrowers are facing in the storm’s aftermath. Their approach is based on longstanding interagency guidance for supporting banks and credit unions during major disasters. Read on »

State regulators in California revoked a lender’s financing license after the “banking as a service” fintech filed for bankruptcy and left thousands of its customers without a way to access their funds. The matter caught the attention of U.S. senators, who wrote a letter to the owners of the company, urging them to immediately restore account access to consumers. Read on »

Silvergate Capital Corp. and former executives are faced with fines and charges over anti-money laundering law violations connected, in part, to misconduct by now-defunct crypto exchange FTX. Charges were filed by the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the State of California. Read on »