The financial news that actually matters
The Banking & Regulation section covers major updates in banking systems, financial regulations, account policies, and institutional changes. It explains how banks operate, how new rules affect consumers, and what policy changes mean for everyday financial decisions.
The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate on Sept. 16, and the certificate-of-deposit market has already priced it in. A savings-account holder shopping a one-year CD tonight can find a published rate above 4% at more than one bank, a threshold that had been harder to clear before the Fed’s latest move. The increase…
A federal student loan discount that has quietly existed for years just got four times larger, and the U.S. Department of Education is giving borrowers a hard date to lock it in. Anyone with a Direct Loan issued after July 1, 2012, including parents who borrowed on a child’s behalf, can cut their interest rate…
Subprime auto lender Credit Acceptance Corporation has agreed to resolve a coalition of state investigations into how it wrote and collected on car loans for buyers with weak credit. The deal totals $694 million in cash and canceled debt, and its single largest piece routes to a group that never lost a vehicle: borrowers who…
Two of the country’s largest banks moved their prime lending rate up within a day of the Federal Reserve’s latest rate decision, pushing the benchmark that anchors a wide range of variable-rate consumer debt to its highest level in years. Bank of America and U.S. Bank both set their prime rate at 7.00%, effective September…
William D. Brenner, a 62-year-old Dover, Pennsylvania, man accused of taking more than $1 million in retirement savings from an elderly woman, pleaded not guilty in federal court in Harrisburg on September 2, 2026. The same day, the court set jury selection and trial for November 2, 2026. Prosecutors say Brenner promised the woman, who…
A second New York man now faces felony charges in a gold-bar scheme that police say took $683,000 in gold from a 78-year-old woman living at a Pennsylvania senior community. South Whitehall Township police announced on Sept. 16, 2026, that Tianhang Zhou had been charged alongside Jiwan Chen, 57, who was arrested in July while…
California did not report and return $113.3 million in Medicaid overpayments tied to 14 cases handled by its Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, federal auditors said in a report issued September 3, 2026. The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General recommended that the state return $47.8 million, the federal share of that…
A federal court in Florida has ordered two salesmen tied to a collapsed commodity pool to pay more than $500,000 and has permanently banned them from trading, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced on September 9, 2026. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida directed Steven Likos to pay $320,041.38 in disgorgement…
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said on September 14, 2026, that it has granted 10 whistleblower awards totaling more than $150 million, all in final determinations issued between July and September 2026. The awards go to people who supplied original information that led the CFTC and other authorities to bring successful enforcement actions. The agency…
A federal judge in Connecticut has ordered Florida man Michael Frederick Staryk to pay $547,616 in restitution to defrauded clients and a $5,907,720 civil monetary penalty in a commodity options fraud case brought by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The CFTC announced the default judgment on September 15, 2026, and said the U.S. District Court…