Tag Archives: banking

WSJ: How Peter Thiel’s “Anti-Woke Bank” Crashed

The Wall Street Journal reports: An A-list group of financial backers including Ken Griffin and Peter Thiel gave Toby Neugebauer tens of millions of dollars to build a new kind of bank—one aimed at people who see Wall Street as too liberal. The potential customer base was huge, Mr. Neugebauer and his business partner, former Mike Pence chief of staff …

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Hackers Steal $570M From Cryptocurrency Exchange

Ars Technica reports: Hackers have stolen around $570 million in tokens from Binance, in a rare blow to the world’s biggest crypto exchange and another dent to the troubled digital assets industry struggling to regain trust after a collapse in prices. It comes at a time when digital assets are trying to recover from a credit crisis that wiped nearly …

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U.S Bank Fined $37M Over Unauthorized Accounts

Via press release: Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) took action against U.S. Bank for illegally accessing its customers’ credit reports and opening checking and savings accounts, credit cards, and lines of credit without customers’ permission. U.S. Bank pressured and incentivized its employees to sell multiple products and services to its customers, including imposing sales goals as part of …

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Federal Reserve Hikes Interest Rates To Cool Inflation

The New York Times reports: The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point on Wednesday, continuing its aggressive campaign to cool rapid inflation even as the economy begins to slow. Central bankers voted unanimously to make the unusually large interest rate move, and the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee signaled in its post-meeting statement that more …

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Credit Card Industry Blocks Bid To Track Gun Sales

CBS News reports: The credit card industry has blocked a novel effort to track suspect firearm and ammunition purchases, depriving law enforcement of a potential tool to identify and stop gun crime. Documents obtained by CBS News show employees from domestic and international credit card companies, including Visa, Mastercard and American Express, pushed back on an application to create a …

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Cryptocurrency Stocks Plummet Amid Bitcoin Crash

CNBC reports: Bitcoin tumbled below $23,000 on Monday, hitting its lowest level since December 2020, as investors dump crypto amid a broader sell-off in risk assets. Meanwhile, a crypto lending company called Celsius has paused withdrawals for its customers, sparking fears of contagion into the broader market. Over the weekend and into Monday morning, more than $200 billion had been …

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PayPal Drops Transaction Fees For Ukrainian Citizens

The Verge reports: PayPal is expanding the services available to its Ukrainian users and waiving fees to help with humanitarian efforts in the country during Russia’s ongoing invasion. According to a news release, Ukrainians will be able to send and receive peer-to-peer PayPal or Xoom payments, and the company won’t apply its normal fees to either side of the transaction. …

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Russians Mob ATMs As Stock Market Closes Amid Ruble Crash And State Bank Doubles Interest Rates [VIDEO]

Axios reports: Russia’s central bank said the Moscow Exchange wouldn’t open for stock trading through at least Tuesday. The exchange was closed on Monday. It’s the latest financial fallout of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which triggered massive sanctions from several other countries that have sent the ruble plummeting to record lows against the dollar. Russia’s central bank increased interest rates …

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Citigroup To Be First Wall Street Bank To Fire Unvaxxed

Reuters reports: Citigroup Inc staff in the United States who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 14 will be placed on unpaid leave and fired at the end of the month unless they are granted an exemption, according to a company memo seen by Reuters on Friday. The U.S. bank announced its plan to impose new vaccination rules …

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“Pandora Papers” Show How The Wealthy Hide Assets

The Associated Press reports: A new report sheds light on how world leaders, powerful politicians, billionaires and others have used offshore accounts to shield assets collectively worth trillions of dollars over the past quarter-century. The report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists involved 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries. It’s being dubbed the “Pandora Papers” because …

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REPORT: Bank Cancels “Risky” Flynn’s Credit Cards

The International Business Times reports: Mike Flynn, former National Security Advisor of Donald Trump, was flagged off as ‘reputational risk’ by Chase Bank in a letter allegedly sent to the retired three-star general. Regina Hicks shared the letter allegedly sent to Flynn announcing that they would be closing his credit cards on September 18, 2021. “BREAKING: Chase Bank cancels its …

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Airlines And Banks See Web Outage In Network Failure

CNN Business reports: Airlines, banks, stock exchanges and trading platforms suffered website outages early Thursday after a key piece of internet infrastructure failed, sparking the second major interruption of the past 10 days. The outages come just over a week after countless websites and apps around the world went down for about an hour when Fastly, another major content delivery …

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Wells Fargo Fires 100+ For Seeking Bailout Funds

Bloomberg News reports: Wells Fargo & Co. fired more than 100 employees for improperly getting coronavirus relief funds, according to a person with knowledge of the situation, Bloomberg News reports. The firm found staffers who it believes defrauded the U.S. Small Business Administration “by making false representations in applying for coronavirus relief funds for themselves,” according to an internal memo …

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Federal Reserve Says Coin Shortage Is Due To COVID

NBC News reports: About two weeks ago, Jake Devney started having a hard time getting quarters at the bank. Devney owns Coin Clean Laundry in Minneapolis and usually keeps about five to seven days worth of quarters in their coin vault. “Right now, pretty much every other day we have to go and exchange the quarters. So take them out …

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Deutsche Bank Fined $150 Million For Epstein “Lapses”

Bloomberg News reports: Deutsche Bank AG will pay New York’s banking regulator $150 million for a string of compliance lapses including a half-decade of lax oversight of the financial dealings of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. New York’s Department of Financial Services provided fresh details Tuesday of Epstein’s money movements in the years before his death. It laid out how …

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ATM Use Plunges As People Fear Handling Cash

Axios reports: People have suddenly stopped using money — of the bill-and-coin variety — for fear it may spread the virus. Some worried shopkeepers have stopped accepting it, too. The coronavirus may have changed our buying and payment habits forever. Online shopping is through the roof, and consumers are rushing to get “contactless” credit and debit cards, which are tapped …

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FBI Warns Hackers Are Targeting Mobile Banking Apps

Via press release from the FBI: The FBI advises the public to be cautious when downloading apps on smartphones and tablets, as some could be concealing malicious intent. Cyber actors target banking information using banking trojans, which are malicious programs that disguise themselves as other apps, such as games or tools. When the user launches a legitimate banking app, it …

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Report: Trump Admin Faked Data On Payday Loans

The New York Times reports: Last summer, on his final day of work at the nation’s consumer finance watchdog agency, a career economist sent colleagues a blunt memo. He claimed that President Trump’s appointees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had manipulated the agency’s research process to justify altering a 2017 rule that would have sharply curtailed high-interest payday loans. …

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Wall Street Firm Pitched 175% Return On Govt Program

Reuters reports: A New York investment firm pitched wealthy investors in recent days on a way to make returns of 22% to 175% using U.S. government programs designed to help Americans keep their jobs and boost the coronavirus-stricken economy, according to a marketing document seen by Reuters. Following questions posed by Reuters, Arcadia Investment Partners LLC, which has about $1 …

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CALIFORNIA: Banks Agree To 90-Day Mortgage Freeze

Courthouse News reports: California Gov. Gavin Newsom delivered a dose of good news for homeowners on Wednesday, announcing the nation’s largest banks will voluntarily freeze mortgage payments for 90 days on families mired in the Covid-19 crisis. Newsom said the agreement is the result of weeks of negotiations with the heads of banks like Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, JPMorgan Chase …

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