Federal regulators have fined Bank of America $225 million “for mishandling prepaid debit card accounts used by a dozen states to distribute unemployment benefits during the pandemic.” Beyond the fine, the bank must also “compensate people for damages, an amount likely to total hundreds of millions more.” A “faulty” fraud detection program led BANA to freeze accounts, “cutting people off from desperately needed funds in 2021 and 2022,” according to CPFB director Rohit Chopra - NYTimes and WSJ and Law360

While the regulatory hits are coming, how about a cool billion from the five biggest U.S. investment banks over allegations that they failed “to monitor employees using unauthorized messaging apps” in recent years. Fines in that range would “dwarf[]” a $15M penalty imposed on Morgan Stanley back in 2006 over its failure to save certain e-mails - Bloomberg

The Federal Reserve’s Office of Inspector General has absolved current Fed Chair Jay Powell and former vice chair Richard Clarida of wrongdoing over transactions the two executed in 2019 and 2020 “when the central bank was especially active in financial markets.” The OIG report, however, did not resolve allegations against Former Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan or Former Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren, both of whom “resigned after their financial trades became the subject of intense media reporting” - NYTimes and WSJ and Law360

SEC officials have expanded their investigation of whether Elon Musk “properly disclosed his investment in Twitter and his intentions for the social medial company.” The Commission is now evaluating whether Musk’s cold-feet tweets (suggesting he would abandon the purchase) were material changes that “should have been disclosed to the agency and investors” - NYTimes and WSJ and Law360

Paul Singer’s activist firm Elliott Management Corp. has amassed a stake in Pinterest as the “once-hot social-media company grapples with a decline in users and other challenges” - WSJ and Bloomberg

Payment startup and fintech darling Stripe as “lowered its internal valuation 28 percent” in the latest sign of “how the fluctuating stock market and economic uncertainty are affecting private companies” - NYTimes and WSJ and TechCrunch

Amazon has “proposed concessions to settle two antitrust cases against it in the European Union, a fresh sign of changing strategy from big tech companies after the bloc passed a strict new digital-competition law.” Among other things, the ‘Zon “offered a pledge not to use nonpublic data about sellers on its marketplace,” a commitment the European Commission said it is evaluating - WSJ and NYTimes

Fed governor Christopher Waller officially put a full 1 percentage point hike on the table on Thursday, saying out loud what many in the Fed orbit had been buzzing about on background since June’s big inflation report dropped. Still, Waller indicated that a 75 bps increase is the more likely course, which would match the Fed’s action in June - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg

The U.S. has signed off on Ericsson’s $6.2 billion acquisition of NJ-based Vonage, “clearing the way for the deal to be completed next week” - WSJ

Those passing through NYC with a few extra hours could do a lot worse than the MOMA’s and 19th Street galleries’ new exhibits on Barbara Kruger, the “artist, feminist, writer and graphic designer” who often pairs 50s-style black and white images with “terse, almost koan-like phrases, blunt observations and imperatives that are contemporary in their economy and style” and whose work is as relevant today as its ever been - NYTimes

Stay safe, and have a great weekend,

MDR