Tech Week: Fed’s Crypto Guidance for Banks, WhatsApp Crackdown in Financial Industry & More

Fed Issues Crypto Guidance for Banks

The U.S. Federal Reserve has issued guidance for banks thinking about getting involved with cryptocurrencies. The Fed said before doing so banks should determine whether the crypto activities being considered are legal and whether any filings are mandated by existing laws.

It said banks should also have risk management controls in place to ensure such activities are carried out safely and in compliance with consumer protection laws, and stressed that banks should notify it before engaging in crypto-related activities. Banks already involved in the digital asset space should also notify it about that activity.

The guidance comes just a few days after several U.S. senators, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) called on the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to replace the guidance it previously issued on cryptocurrencies with “a comprehensive approach in coordination with other prudential regulators.” (REUTERS, INSURANCE JOURNAL)

Regulatory Crackdown on WhatsApp Use in Financial Industry

Fund managers are tightening up on employee use of personal communication tools like WhatsApp for conducting business with clients remotely, in response to a regulatory crackdown on such activity mostly among banks. Collectively, banks and other entities involved in communications and record-keeping investigations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) either already have or expect to be fined over $1 billion in regulatory penalties. (CNBC)

Google Union Demands Extension of Employee Abortion Benefits

Google’s employee union has petitioned management to extend abortion benefits to contractors. The company announced those benefits, which include coverage of out-of-state medical procedures and relocation, in June. But they only apply to the company’s 174,000 full-time employees, not its 100,000 contractors. (CNBC)

Amazon Fights Back against FTC

Amazon.com Inc. and several of its current and former employees, including founder Jeff Bezos, are seeking to “quash or limit” civil investigative demands - similar to subpoenas - served to them by the Federal Trade Commission in connection with its investigation of the company’s business practices, according to a filing made public last week. The FTC is looking into whether Amazon’s subscription services, including Amazon Prime, violate U.S. consumer protection laws. (BLOOMBERG)

Judge Okays Peloton Class Action Suit

A federal judge gave the go-ahead last week for a proposed class action lawsuit accusing bike and treadmill maker Peloton Interactive Inc. of misleading customers about the “ever-growing” size of its library of on-demand fitness classes. In his 40-page decision, U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan said Peloton customers in New York from April 2018 to March 2019 were free to try to prove they overpaid because Peloton failed to inform them about its “imminent” purge of over half of its estimated 12,000 on-demand class library, after being sued by music publishers for using copyrighted songs in its workout videos without proper licensing. (REUTERS, INSURANCE JOURNAL)

NJ Lawsuit Alleges Police Used Baby’s DNA for Criminal Investigation of Father

A public records lawsuit filed in New Jersey last month alleges that police used the blood sample of a newborn child to investigate the child’s father in connection with a sexual assault from the 1990s, using a technique known as investigative genetic genealogy, or forensic genealogy. The newborn’s DNA sample was collected through the state’s newborn screening program, which most states established by the 1970s to test for certain diseases. (WIRED)

-- Compiled by KOREY CLARK