Tag: banks

US Regulators Allow Banks Custody Over Bitcoin And Crypto

The Federal Reserve, OCC, and FDIC warn banks that safekeeping bitcoin and other crypto-assets demands strong cybersecurity, operational expertise, and full legal compliance.

Federal banking regulators issued a joint statement today emphasizing that banks involved in bitcoin and crypto-assets-related custody and other activities by following existing laws and maintaining strong risk controls. The statement, issued by the Federal Reserve, OCC, and FDIC, clarifies that it does not introduce new rules but reminds banks of their obligations when handling bitcoin and other crypto on behalf of customers.

“Banking organizations may provide safekeeping for crypto-assets in a fiduciary or a nonfiduciary capacity,” the document stated. “Banking organizations that provide crypto-asset safekeeping in a fiduciary capacity must comply with 12 CFR 9 or 150, as applicable, state laws and regulations, and any other applicable legal provisions, such as the instrument that created the fiduciary relationship.”

The agencies emphasize that safekeeping bitcoin and other crypto-assets, mainly through control of customers’ cryptographic keys, requires strong cybersecurity, operational expertise, and full legal compliance. Banks offering these services must be prepared to protect against risks such as key loss, cyberattacks, and unauthorized asset transfers.

They also note that bitcoin and other crypto safekeeping may demand specialized staff, secure infrastructure, and constant monitoring of evolving technologies. Regulatory requirements like anti-money laundering (AML), countering the financing of terrorism (CFT), and OFAC sanctions still apply. 

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The Shadowy Past of the Secret Bank That Controls the World

Few people—even diligent media followers—are likely to speak knowledgably about the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). Yet, hidden in plain sight in a 20-story tower (with four more stories below ground level) in Basel, the BIS influences the leaders of the world’s top central banks and controls the global economy. Moreover, it cannot be questioned or held accountable for any of its actions. In his 2013 book Tower of Basel, Adam LeBor, a former reporter for The Economist and author of thoroughly researched works such as Hitler’s Secret Bankers, The Last Days of Budapest, and City of Oranges, analyzes the bank’s history to explain how it gained unlimited power.

He also exposes its complete amorality. Thomas McKittrick, the bank’s chief during the war, whom the author calls “Hitler’s American Banker,” kept passing critical information to the Nazi regime. The BIS financed the Holocaust by accepting gold stolen by the Nazis from Belgium and marking it as German, even though a Belgian central banker warned that the gold had probably been melted down and re-stamped with German markings.

Austrian and Czech gold was also accepted as German deposits and kept out of reach. It was common knowledge that, besides gold from the governments of occupied nations, the Nazis were depositing gold stolen by the Devisenschutzkommando (DSK), Hitler’s special squads of treasure-hunting torturers. But that did not matter to the BIS. Kapital über alles, as LeBor titles the first part of the book.

Hunger for profit and disregard for ethics—these seem to be ingrained in the very DNA of the BIS. As recently as 1991, when the Argentinian economy collapsed and the country was $81 billion in debt, the BIS accepted—and thus kept out of creditors’ reach—money that should have rightfully been returned to them. Besides two fund management firms, the creditors were mostly pensioners who had invested in Argentinian bonds. The firms have sued the BIS and brought some attention to its highhandedness.

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Huawei To Stand Trial In US On Charges Of Bank Fraud, Sanctions Violations, Theft

Chinese company Huawei Technologies will stand trial on multiple charges after a federal judge denied its bid to dismiss a long-running case against it.

On July 1, District Judge Ann Donnelly of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York ruled that there was sufficient evidence to proceed with a 16-count indictment against Huawei and its subsidiaries.

Huawei, which is closely tied to the Chinese communist regime, stands accused of racketeering, stealing trade secrets from six U.S. companies, and committing bank fraud.

With Donnelly’s ruling, the case will move forward toward trial. Currently, the proceedings are scheduled to begin on May 4, 2026.

Huawei stands charged with using a Hong Kong-based front company, Skycom, to conduct business in Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions and with misleading banks in order to facilitate more than $100 million in illegal money transfers.

Additionally, the indictment alleges that Huawei engaged in racketeering to expand its global brand.

Representatives of Huawei did not respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times by publication time.

In November 2024, Huawei pleaded not guilty and called itself “a prosecutorial target in search of a crime.”

The upcoming trial is expected to last several months and could have significant implications for the ongoing tensions between the United States and China over technology, trade, and national security.

As part of the long-running federal investigation into Huawei’s business dealings, Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, also the daughter of the company’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, was previously charged and detained in Canada for nearly three years before the charges against her were dismissed in 2022 as part of a deferred prosecution agreement.

Huawei, based in Shenzhen, China, operates in more than 170 countries and employs approximately 208,000 people worldwide. The U.S. government has imposed restrictions on Huawei’s access to U.S. technology since 2019, citing national security concerns; Huawei has denied those accusations.

Along with manufacturing smartphones and consumer technolog

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“This Is The Next Level”: AI-Powered “Digital Workers” Deployed At Major Bank To Work Alongside Humans

If you’re working in banking, your next colleague could be a bot. Once unthinkable, the Bank of New York Mellon announced that it has deployed dozens of artificial intelligence-powered “digital employees” that operate with human employees, and even have their own company login credentials.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Similar to human employees, these digital workers have direct managers they report to and work autonomously in areas like coding and payment instruction validation, said Chief Information Officer Leigh-Ann Russell. Soon they’ll have access to their own email accounts and may even be able to communicate with colleagues in other ways like through Microsoft Teams, she said.

What the bank, also known as BNY, calls “digital workers,” other banks may refer to as “AI agents.” And while the industry lacks a clear consensus on exact terminology, it’s clear that the technology has a growing presence in financial services.

“This is the next level,” Russell told the Journal. “I’m sure in six months’ time it will become very, very prevalent.”

BNY said its AI Hub developed two digital employee personas in three months, according to Adrienne Russell. One persona is engineered to identify and resolve coding vulnerabilities, while the other verifies payment instructions. Each persona can operate in multiple instances—up to several dozen—with each instance confined to a specific team to limit company wide data access.

Soon, the bank plans to integrate its digital workforce with email addresses and Microsoft Teams access in the near future, enabling these AI personas to proactively communicate with human managers, but will maintain its focus on recruiting top human talent while simultaneously expanding its digital workforce, according to the Journal.

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Treasury Sanctions 3 Mexican Financial Institutions For Aiding Cartels In Fentanyl Trade; Sheinbaum Denies

Mexican President Sheinbaum has commented on the sanctions, denying any fraud and claiming the Mexican banking system is ‘sound’:

  • *SHEINBAUM: NO EVIDENCE OF MONEY LAUNDERING IN MEXICAN BANKS
  • *SHEINBAUM SAYS MEXICO ONLY FOUND ADMINISTRATIVE FLAWS IN BANKS
  • *SHEINBAUM: MEXICO ASKED US TREASURY MONEY LAUNDERING EVIDENCE
  • *SHEINBAUM: MEXICAN FINANCIAL SYSTEM SOUND, ACCUSED FIRMS SMALL
  • *MEXICO TRANSFERS TO CHINA COS ‘NOT MONEY LAUNDERING’: SHEINBAUM

Just a coincidence?

As Naveen Athrappully detailed earlier via The Epoch Times, The Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) sanctioned three financial institutions based in Mexico for allegedly laundering money for cartels involved in the illegal trade of fentanyl, the Treasury said in a June 25 statement. The institutions are CIBanco S.A., Intercam Banco S.A., and Vector Casa de Bolsa S.A. de C.V.

CIBanco and Intercam are commercial banks with assets worth more than $7 billion and $4 billion, respectively. Vector is a brokerage company managing almost $11 billion in assets.

FinCEN has determined that the entities launder money in connection with illicit opioid trafficking, and have “collectively played a longstanding and vital role in laundering millions of dollars on behalf of Mexico-based cartels and facilitating payments for the procurement of precursor chemicals needed to produce fentanyl,” the statement said.

CIBanco facilitated illicit opioid trafficking by Mexican cartels such as Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), Beltran-Leyva Cartel, and Gulf Cartel. Intercam was linked to CJNG, and Vector with the Sinaloa Cartel and Gulf Cartel, said the statement.

FinCEN said that between 2021 and 2024, CIBanco processed more than $2.1 million in payments from Mexico-based companies to entities in China that shipped precursor chemicals to Mexico. Intercam processed over $1.5 million during the same period.

As for Vector, the institution processed more than $1 million between 2018 and 2023.

The sanctions prohibit financial institutions in the United States from engaging in the transmission of funds from or to CIBanco, Intercam, or Vector. The prohibition also applies to any account or convertible virtual currency address administered by the three institutions.

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To Defeat Drug Cartels, Corrupt Bankers Must Be Jailed

“There are far more ‘bad apples’ in the banking sales industry, in the legal profession, in the financial service provider industry and in the international business community than the world can comprehend.” – Robert Mazur

Drug cartels are menacing on two levels: they mass produce and sell extremely addictive drugs literally by the ton, and they leverage highly effective global money laundering systems to plow their illegal profits into mainstream commerce. Too often, corrupt bankers are actively or passively complicit. If we can stop the bankers, we throw a huge wrench into the cartels’ ability to function.

For decades, law enforcement has valiantly fought drug smugglers but to little avail. Consider this 2024 statement from the U.S. Treasury:

During the assessment period, Clan del Golfo (CDG), a Colombia-based TCO and paramilitary organization, remained a significant producer and trafficker of cocaine destined for U.S. drug markets and earned a significant amount of proceeds in U.S. dollars. According to the DOJ, CDG is one of the most violent and powerful criminal organizations in Colombia, and it is one of the largest distributors of cocaine in the world.

Mostly, America’s fight against the cartels has been done using a tactical troops on the ground approach that sends some of the most vicious cutthroat criminals to prison. However, the bankers who knowingly handle the cartels’ money rarely pay a price. And it’s a lot of money: “The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates between 2 per cent and 5 per cent of global GDP—up to $2 trillion—is laundered every year.” According to a DEA agent, the cartels are “undermining [America’s] financial stability.”

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Top Canadian bank studies possible use of digital dollar for ‘basic’ online payments

Canada’s central bank has been studying ways to introduce a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for use for online retailers, according to a new report, despite the fact that recent research suggests Canadians are wary of any type of digital dollar.

In a new 47-page report titled, “A Retail CBDC Design For Basic Payments Feasibility Study,” which was released on June 13, 2025, the Bank of Canada (BOC) identified a “promising architecture well-suited for basic payments” through the use of a digital dollar.

The report reads that CBDCs “can be fast and cheap for basic payments, with high privacy, although some areas such as integration with retail payments systems, performance of auditing and resilience of the core system state require further investigation.”

While the report authors stopped short of fully recommending a CBDC, they noted it is a decision that could happen “outside the scope of this analysis.”

“Our framing highlights other promising architectures for an online retail CBDC, whose analysis we leave as an area for further exploration,” reads the report.

When it comes to a digital Canadian dollar, the Bank of Canada last year found that Canadians are very wary of a government-backed digital currency, concluding that a “significant number” of citizens would resist the implementation of such a system.

Indeed, a 2023 study found that most Canadians, about 85 percent, do not want a digital dollar, as previously reported by LifeSiteNews.

The study found that a “significant number” of Canadians are suspicious of government overreach and would resist any measures by the government or central bank to create digital forms of official money.

The BOC has said that it would continue to look at other countries’ use and development of CBDCs and will work with other “central banks” to improve so-called cross border payments.

Last year, as reported by LifeSiteNews, the BOC has already said that plans to create a digital “dollar,” also known as a central bank digital currency (CBDC), have been shelved.

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Suspected Israeli hackers claim to destroy data at Iran’s Bank Sepah

An anti-Iranian government hacking group with potential ties to Israel and a track record of destructive cyberattacks on Iran claimed in social media posts on Tuesday that it had destroyed data at Iran’s state-owned Bank Sepah.

The group — known as Gonjeshke Darande, or “Predatory Sparrow” — hacked the bank because they accused it of helping fund Iran’s military, according to one of the messages posted online.

The hack comes amid increasing hostilities between Israel and Iran, after Israel attacked multiple military and nuclear targets in Iran last week. Both sides have launched multiple missile attacks against each other in the days since.

Reuters could not immediately verify the attack on Bank Sepah. The bank’s website was offline on Tuesday and its London-based subsidiary, Bank Sepah International plc, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Customers were having problems accessing their accounts, according to Israeli media.

Gonjeshke Darande did not respond to multiple messages sent via social media.

“Disrupting the availability of this bank’s funds, or triggering a broader collapse of trust in Iranian banks, could have major impacts there,” Rob Joyce, the former top cybersecurity official at the NSA, said in a post on X.

In 2022, Gonjeshke Darande claimed responsibility for a cyberattack against an Iranian steel production facility. The sophisticated attack caused a large fire at the facility, resulting in tangible, offline damage. Such attacks are usually beyond the capabilities of activist hackers, security experts say, and would be more in line with the capabilities of a nation state.

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A US Bank Closed Our Accounts Because I’d Visited Cuba Six Months Ago

For years, World BEYOND War and other peace groups from around the world had been attending peace conferences in Cuba. When I visited Cuba this past January it was with a visa for that purpose. I published here the remarks I made at the conference. We shouted as loudly as we could about January’s conference in websites, social media, emails, and media interviews. The notion that there could be anything wrong with it — or that some institution could punish us for it — never entered our minds.

Legally, you’re allowed to go to a peace conference in Cuba. Nobody has so much as hinted that I’ve done anything illegal. But on Thursday June 5th I got a bunch of letters in the mail telling me that on Monday June 9th the U.S. bank accounts of World BEYOND War and the private accounts of all of my family members would be closed without explanation. This was the action of a particular bank called First Citizens, with no indication of any involvement by any government. (The explanation, it would be made clear, was my visit to Cuba.)

Morally, it seems a useful thing to do — attending peace conferences in Cuba. As at similar conferences in many other countries, one can meet diplomats, authors, activists, and politicians from all over the world to discuss peace education, disarmament, negotiations, and cross-cultural understanding. Videos of the entire conferences in Cuba, like most others around the world, are posted online for all to see.

World BEYOND War works to abolish all war, and opposes all sides of all wars — an unusual position even at peace conferences. We are constantly working to persuade some people not to support the Russian side of a war and other people not to support the Ukrainian side. We oppose any and all war-making by the U.S., Cuba, or anyone else, without equating disparate sides or blaming victims in any actual wars. Some groups try to shut down weapons programs because the weapons don’t work well; we start with opposing those that kill the most. When Trump sends troops into Los Angeles, we don’t join the Governor of California in asking that soldiers and Marines do their work abroad; we ask people to think about whether such armed forces should invade anyone else’s city either. The nice thing about peace conferences is that we can advance these views nonviolently, disagreeing amicably.

The problem, apparently, for a U.S. bank, with Cuban peace conferences is that, as with many things in Cuba, the Cuban government is involved. The president of the country wanders into the panel sessions. While that has the potential to cause censorship, it also has the potential to educate decision makers. I’d like to see presidents wandering in at peace conferences in Washington and other capitals.

Of course, the U.S. government has been sanctioning and blockading Cuba for generations, for the stated illegal purpose of overthrowing the government but — as usual — with the result of strengthening it instead, and the actual illegal impact of impoverishing the Cuban people — whose impoverishment is then blamed on the Cuban government and used as an excuse to overthrow it. This cruelty from the North provides a handy excuse for all sorts of repression and awful governance by the Cuban government, just as with the Iranian government and several others.

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Stripe And Substack Demand Authors’ Financial Details

Financial privacy is a right under the Constitution, as is free speech.  

Under the guise of “credit review,” Stripe is now rolling out a requirement that appears to target conservative or “anti-vax” Substack authors. Stripe is requiring that these authors provide all of their current and historic financial records associated with the bank account into which Stripe deposits Substack subscriber payments (after taking 10% off the top for Substack and 3% for Stripe). Stripe already has information concerning this bank account (including deposits from Stripe), as we have been doing business with Stripe via this account for over two years.

If I or anyone else agree to these new terms, this newly implemented arbitrary, capricious and overreaching requirement will provide Stripe with complete records of all financial transactions associated with this account. Consequently, this will provide Stripe with comprehensive information on all of my customers, patients, and clients, all of my travel (historic and planned), all of my purchases, and any donations (and donor information).

This information from my account and those of any others who comply with this demand can be hacked or sold, provided to the US Government, used to fuel predictive algorithms (AI), used to derive insights into my political orientation, weaponized against me by press or other hostile actors, or used to support future social credit score-based restrictions.

Stripe has a history of financially deplatforming (or debanking) for political reasons, including removing support for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Despite its relatively recent entry into the financial transaction business, Stripe has become a major global financial organization, and processed one $1 trillion in payments during 2023, and is now expanding its credit charge program. 

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