Section
Regulation
Treasury rulemaking, bank supervision and the comment periods where proposed rules get contested.
Covered by Samuel Okonkwo
Rain files for a national trust bank charter to issue stablecoins under GENIUS Act
The proposed Rain National Trust Bank would custody digital and fiat assets and manage reserves for stablecoin issuers, but would not take deposits or make loans.
SEC censures J.P. Morgan units after disqualified employee handled 800 security-based swap trades
J.P. Morgan Securities and JPMorgan Chase Bank consented to a cease-and-desist order after an employee barred from swap dealing over a 2011 U.K. fine executed and supervised trades for more than two years; the firms avoided a monetary penalty because they self-reported.
SEC settles with robo-advisor matchmaker Zoe Financial over undisclosed conflicts of interest
Zoe Financial will pay a $450,000 penalty after the SEC found it steered clients toward advisers on its platform without disclosing its financial stake in the referrals.
SEC fines OTC Link $575,000 over nine years of unresolved system-security compliance failures
The censure and civil penalty resolve findings that the broker-dealer repeatedly failed to fix written policy gaps around system security, access control and vulnerability management for its OTC Link ATS platform, despite examiners flagging the deficiencies multiple times since 2016.
SEC clears "zero cash balance" brokerage model in no-action letters to Alpaca Securities and eToro USA
The letters let broker-dealers keep customer cash in an external bank or money-services account instead of inside the brokerage account itself, drawing funds only when a trade requires them — a structural change to where investor cash actually sits.
FTC settles with payment processor Humboldt Merchant Services over shell-company fraud facilitation
The agency alleged Humboldt knowingly processed payments for more than 1,000 shell companies running fraudulent billing scams; the company will pay $12 million in consumer redress and is permanently barred from processing for several high-risk merchant categories.
Corpay agrees to $100 million FTC settlement over hidden fuel card fees
The fleet-payments company, formerly known as FleetCor, will fund customer redress after the agency alleged it promised fuel savings that never materialized while obscuring late fees and administrative charges from billing statements.
German regulator fines neobank Vivid Money over fee-disclosure and reporting lapses
BaFin issued a combined €26,000 fine after finding Vivid Money failed to properly report its account models to a national account-comparison service and left required fee information and a glossary temporarily unavailable on its website.
SEC settles with R4 Capital Funding over $1.16 billion in municipal bond deals done without broker-dealer registration
The firm agreed to a cease-and-desist order and a $100,000 penalty after regulators found it negotiated bond terms and took transaction-based fees on 31 affordable-housing offerings without registering.
Revolut confirms customer data exposed after scammers impersonated a government agency
A fraudulent information request sent from a spoofed but authenticated government domain tricked Revolut’s compliance team into releasing KYC documents and transaction histories.
FTC settles with payment processor Nuvei over $4.85 million for allegedly enabling merchant fraud
The agency alleged Nuvei opened and kept accounts open for merchants it knew or should have known were running deceptive schemes, including tech-support scams; Nuvei is now permanently barred from serving certain high-risk merchant categories.
Treasury proposes licensing regime for payment stablecoin issuers
Under the GENIUS Act framework, licensing begins January 18, 2027, and unlicensed issuance is barred from July 18, 2028. Comments are open for 60 days.