Banner years are generally welcome, except when it comes to ransomware. New data from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN, finds that ransomware payments jumped 77%, or $1.1 billion, in 2023 year-over-year from 2022. The FinCEN Financial Trend Analysis report also found that …

The FinCEN Beneficial Ownership Information mandate is back in force with a recent court decision. That rule, part of the Corporate Transparency Act passed in 2024,had required businesses to file a Beneficial Ownership Information report by Jan. 1, which was delayed earlier in December but now makes these reports due Jan. 13. Businesses formed …

A court ruling in Texas earlier this month has delayed an ownership reporting requirement mandated by the Corporate Transparency Act. That is not likely to be a reason to rejoice because a future court could uphold the requirement. Under the act, which went into effect Jan. 1, businesses were supposed …

With trillions of dollars in federal stimulus money sloshing around in the economy to help consumers who have lost their jobs due to Covid-19, fraudsters are ratcheting up their efforts to get a piece of that pie. Two popular plans of attack are imposter scams, where criminals impersonate representatives of …

• Apple Inc. said it is bringing its Apple Pay mobile-payments service to Japan with its new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus smart phones, and Apple Watch Series 2. Apple Pay will work with Japan’s variant of near-field communication (NFC) contactless technology known as FeliCa. • The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial …

Defending the federal government’s guidance for providing financial services to legal marijuana businesses, a senior U.S. Treasury Department official on Tuesday said more than 100 banks and credit unions are now working with cannabis-industry customers. One consultant who connects banks with marijuana merchants confirms that financial-institution interest in the budding …

President Trump issued an executive order requiring a move to electronic processing for all federal payments and receipts “by digitizing payments to the extent permissible under applicable law.” The order specifically rules out the creation of a central bank digital currency. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued an interim rule that removes the requirement …