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TD Bank has appointed Guidepost Solutions as the compliance monitor for its anti-money laundering (AML) program following a $3bn penalty imposed by U.S. regulators last year. Chief Financial Officer Kelvin Tran said: "AML remediation is our top priority at TD, and we're making steady progress." The monitoring will be funded from a $500m budget allocated for compliance efforts. TD Bank, which became the largest U.S. bank to plead guilty to violating anti-money laundering laws, is under scrutiny for facilitating over $650m in transactions linked to drug trafficking. The U.S. Department of Justice mandated the appointment of a monitor to oversee TD's operations and compliance improvements. Following the scandal, CEO Bharat Masrani and several executives have departed the bank.

 

Reuters

U.S. News

Achieving Resilience: Spotlight on Risk and Control Self-Assessments (RCSAs)

On Thursday, March 13, join Elena Pykhova, best-selling author, expert educator, and founder of The OpRisk Company and MetricStream experts for an exclusive webinar, where they explore how aligning Operational Risk and Resilience can foster agile, efficient, and resilient organisations.

Time: 4:00 pm GMT | 5:00 pm CET | 8:00 am PT | 11:00 am ET

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Citigroup mistakenly credited $81tn instead of $280 to a customer’s account last April and took several hours to reverse the error, the FT reports. The incident, which was described as a “near miss”, could complicate the bank's efforts to convince regulators that it has resolved long-standing operational deficiencies. The erroneous transaction was not initially detected by the assigned payments employee or the secondary reviewer before it was processed the following day. 

 

Yahoo Finance

Financial Times

The Guardian

U.S. District Judge John Bates has ordered Trump administration officials to testify under oath about the authority and structure of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The decision comes as government employee unions seek to prevent DOGE from accessing federal agency systems. This is the first order requiring the Trump administration to comply with plaintiffs' demands for information, known as discovery, in a lawsuit about DOGE, according to Democracy Forward, the group representing the plaintiffs. “The American people deserve to know what is happening behind closed doors and advancing to discovery is an important step in this case,” observed Democracy Forward President Skye Perryman. Labor unions are particularly concerned about the potential for sensitive information about investigations into Elon Musk's companies to be compromised. The case has expanded to include multiple departments and unions as plaintiffs.

 

Bloomberg Tax

U.S. News

Canada's privacy watchdog has initiated an investigation into X, Elon Musk's social media platform, to determine if its use of Canadians' personal data to train AI models, such as the Grok chatbot developed by xAI, violates federal privacy laws, following a complaint received by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. The probe, prompted by concerns raised by New Democratic Party lawmaker Brian Masse about transparency and potential misinformation, comes amid heightened Canada-U.S. tensions over trade and technology issues, with X yet to respond to the allegations.

 

Reuters

The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) has dismissed several enforcement actions against major companies, including Capital One and Rocket Homes, following a change in leadership. The suits were all filed under the agency’s previous director, Rohit Chopra, who President Donald Trump recently fired. Trump has made claims about the CFPB being “set up to destroy people,” but the agency's supporters say that it provides crucial oversight and protects consumers from being vulnerable to predatory business practices.

 

The Baltimore Sun

OregonLive.com

Washingtonpost.com

The Swiss attorney general's office has fined Morgan Stanley's unit operating in the country $1m for inadequate measures that allowed a client advisor to launder money in 2010, linked to bribes from Greece involving the convicted former Greek Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos. Morgan Stanley, which cooperated with the investigation and accepted the penalty without opposition, was also ordered to cover the costs of the proceedings.

 

Reuters

Pollution derived from the huge amounts of energy needed to run data centers has created related public health costs of more than $5.4bn over the past five years, according to research.

 

Ars Technica

Financial Times

Apple is expected to face an antitrust fine from the French regulator next month due to its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature, which allows iPhone users to control app tracking and has been criticized by companies including Meta for complicating digital advertising on Apple's platforms. The French authority alleges that Apple abuses its dominant position with discriminatory and non-transparent data usage conditions, a concern echoed by the German antitrust authority earlier this month, potentially leading to a fine of up to 10% of Apple's global revenue.

 

Reuters

Meta has fired 20 workers for leaking information to the media. The round of dismissals follows a series of reports based on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's meetings with employees. In one meeting, Zuckerberg told employees he would no longer be forthcoming with information because "we try to be really open and then everything I say leaks. It sucks." A Meta spokesperson said: "We tell employees when they join the company, and we offer periodic reminders, that it is against our policies to leak internal information, no matter the intent . . . We recently conducted an investigation that resulted in roughly 20 employees being terminated for sharing confidential information outside the company, and we expect there will be more."

 

Barron's

A major fire at SPS Technologies' factory in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, last week has disrupted the aerospace industry, prompting companies like Boeing, GE Aerospace, and Safran to urgently assess their supply chains for exposure to the loss of this key parts supplier, which produced specialized titanium fasteners for aircraft including the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350. The incident, which destroyed a facility critical to an already strained supply chain, has raised concerns about potential production delays and part rationing.

 

Reuters

BlackRock is contemplating a shift away from Australia due to "stretched valuations and weak growth," according to Katie Petering, who leads the firm's investment strategy in the region. With nearly $100bn managed for clients, BlackRock is reassessing its strategic asset allocation amid global uncertainty. Petering said: "In Australia, one thing that we're looking at is that the local market has probably stretched valuations and there's probably not as strong a growth outlook as other countries." The firm is currently favoring markets like the U.S. and Japan, citing recent corporate reforms and inflation as positive factors.

 

U.S. News

With over 1,000 brands having left Russia over the last three years, the country is expecting some US companies to return as early as the second quarter of 2025 if a peace deal with Ukraine is reached. Those businesses that fall outside sanctions, such as retailers and food producers, are the most likely to return first, a senior Russian lawmaker said. Reuters notes however that the markets they vacated now look more competitive than three years ago, citing the experience of Henderson, a men's clothing chain that listed on Moscow Exchange in late 2023, and which said the departure of foreign retailers had given it a development boost, largely by making better locations within shopping centers available.

 

Reuters

Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, has announced the termination of over 100 employees from across the U.S. intelligence community for engaging in sexually explicit conversations on a secure government chat platform. Gabbard described their actions as “an egregious violation of trust” and emphasized the need for professionalism. She issued a directive mandating the identification of those involved in the “obscene, pornographic, and sexually explicit” chatrooms by Friday. Gabbard said: “We will continue to clean house,” as she indicated ongoing efforts to address misconduct within the agency.

 

U.S. News

The Trump Administration is reportedly considering repealing the 'endangerment finding,' a crucial 2009 scientific conclusion that identified greenhouse gases as a threat to public health. Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator, is advocating for this change, which could dismantle numerous climate regulations established during the Obama and Biden administrations.

 

Daily Mail

An "economic blackout" has been announced for Friday, initiated by The People's Union USA, a grassroots movement led by John Schwarz, a meditation teacher from Chicago. The campaign encourages consumers to refrain from all spending for 24 hours, aiming to send a message to corporations during a time of economic uncertainty. Mr Schwarz said: "If people are going to step in and make a change that benefits the people, it's now". The initiative comes as consumer sentiment declines, with expectations of a 4.3% price increase in the coming year. Participants are urged to avoid shopping, dining out, or filling up on gas. The movement plans additional boycotts throughout the spring, targeting major retailers like Amazon and Walmart.

 

Washington Post