- Education & Events
- Advocacy
- Products & Services
- Membership
- Resources
- SDBANKER Magazine
- SDBA eNews
- SDBA eNews Archives
- Legislative Update/Bill Watch
- South Dakota Bank Directory
- Women in Banking
- Scenes of South Dakota Calendar*
- Holiday Signs
- Regulatory Report
- South Dakota Banking Code
- Record Retention Manual
- Advertising & Sponsorship Guide
- COVID-19 Resources
- Mental Health and Crisis Prevention
- About
|
News
SDBA UpdatesSDBA Events
Online EducationPolitico: 'I like crypto. I also like my banks': A lobbying war squeezes senatorsSenate Republicans' friends are fighting. They'll soon have to pick a side between the banks and crypto companies.August 12, 2026 | Jasper GoodmanSen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) says he will vote to advance a landmark crypto bill, but he has signaled support for making bank-favored changes to the legislation on the floor. | Francis Chung/POLITICO The cryptocurrency industry's massive investment to build political power in Washington and win a landmark legislative victory is running into a formidable obstacle: senators' hometown bankers. Banks are mounting an aggressive last-ditch campaign to amend a key part of a sweeping crypto bill, leaning on relationships with lawmakers that in many cases stretch back decades. Their lobbying blitz is reviving a fight that crypto companies hoped they had won months ago, and it may soon force Senate Republicans to choose between two powerful constituencies. "I want to support crypto, I like crypto. I also like my banks," said Utah GOP Sen. John Curtis. "And they really need to come to a place where it's [not] either or." The fight is a reminder of the banking industry's enduring influence on Capitol Hill - and of the limits of the political clout crypto companies have amassed through spending hundreds of millions of dollars on elections and lobbying. Banks, particularly hometown lenders, are drawing on their ties with senators - as well as decades of their own political spending - to push back on the crypto sector. "They know us," said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who has pledged to vote to advance the crypto bill but has signaled support for making bank-favored amendments on the floor. "Each of us knows those people personally." Much of the angst around the bill is being driven by concerns raised by state and local banking organizations that say they could get wiped off the map if protections aren't added to the bill - claims that crypto firms say are exaggerated. But the push is also backed by many - though not all - Wall Street giants that are flexing their political and lobbying muscles to try to force changes. That influence is now threatening to complicate one of President Donald Trump's top legislative priorities - a comprehensive bill known as the Clarity Act that would create a new regulatory framework tailored for digital assets. Two Republicans have said they will oppose the bill without changes sought by banks, while others are voicing concerns as GOP leaders prepare to bring the legislation to the floor next month. At issue is whether certain crypto firms should be allowed to offer rewards programs that pay yield to customers who hold stablecoins, a form of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a value of $1. Banks warn that crypto rewards programs could lead their customers to pull billions of dollars out of checking and savings accounts, threatening their business model and starving them of the deposits they use to make loans. Crypto supporters say those warnings are overblown - and that Congress already settled the dispute months ago with a bipartisan compromise. The crypto fight is "the most important thing" on small banks' Washington agenda, said Alice P. Frazier, the CEO of Potomac Bank in Charles Town, West Virginia, and the chair of the Independent Community Bankers of America. "We are the local economic drivers of growth," she said. Crypto companies, she added, "are not going to come back and make loans into the communities the way that we do." The bank lobbying push has enraged the crypto industry and its allies in Congress. They say there is little evidence that the deposit flight bankers are warning of would actually take place, and that a deal struck earlier this year by a pair of bank-friendly senators - Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) - settled the issue. They are also accusing banks, which say the Tillis-Alsobrooks language doesn't go far enough, of trying to outlaw legitimate competition in the financial services space. Kara Calvert, vice president of U.S. policy at Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto exchange, said in a statement that "resistance to disruptive technology-from streaming to ride-sharing-isn't new." "But deposit flight is a farce, and banks are promoting fear, not facts," she said. "Lawmakers have a duty to protect consumers who are best served by competitive innovation, not incumbents." The crypto bill maintains strong overall support among Republicans, and it is a top priority for the Trump administration. It remains unclear if the bank-generated concerns will be enough to convince a meaningful number of senators to vote against the bill. Despite pressure from the banks - and the influential Wall Street Journal editorial board - Republicans are vowing to largely stick together to at least advance the bill past a procedural vote when they return from their August recess. Ultimately, the bill's fate will likely rest on whether Republicans can strike a bipartisan deal with Democrats, which is needed to pass the measure. Several thorny outstanding issues remain - including an ethics provision that Democrats want in the bill to crack down on Trump's ability to profit off his family's crypto businesses. But if lawmakers clinch a bipartisan agreement, the bill could draw enough Democratic support to overcome potential GOP defections. "There's still some Republicans that have angst and issues because the banks are spreading false propaganda to a lot of my colleagues, but we're pushing back on that," said Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), a crypto ally. "I am extraordinarily confident that every Republican will vote for the motion to proceed." Moreno and Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), the Senate's leading crypto booster, signed on as co-sponsors last week to a bill known as the Credit Card Competition Act that banks have spent years lobbying against - and the Ohio Republican is threatening to use that measure as retaliation against Wall Street groups. "If this pressure keeps going on, maybe we put both bills together," he said. "Maybe that's the favor they deserve." Bankers are hoping to capitalize on the August recess, when members will be home in their states. Kenneth Kelly, chair of the largest banking industry trade group, the American Bankers Association, said in a statement that lenders are "encouraged that a growing number of Senators share our deep concern over the current stablecoin rewards language in the Clarity Act and the risk it poses to bank lending and economic activity." "Over the recess, ABA members across the country, as well as some of their customers, will be reaching out to Senators back home to share how our modest changes to the legislation can address the rewards issue and help move Clarity forward," said Kelly, who is also chair and CEO of First Independence Bank in Detroit. "I'm optimistic we will see an improved bill in September." Back to TopABA: Clarity Act on CNBCJuly 29, 2026Community banks power local economies by turning deposits into small business loans, farm financing, mortgages, and the credit families rely on every day. Congress is now finalizing the CLARITY Act, which will set the rules for stablecoins. But, as written, the bill leaves a key loophole: it allows certain stablecoin “rewards” to function like interest outside the banking system through affiliates or third parties. Regulators warn this could pull funding out of community banks, reducing lending capacity and leading to fewer loans and higher borrowing costs for small businesses, farmers, and families. Closing this loophole will help ensure clear, consistent rules that protect both innovation and the local credit our communities depend on. Back to TopABA Banking Journal: More work needed to harmonize BSA/sanctions requirements for stablecoin issuersAugust 6, 2026
The FDIC has advanced proposed rules to establish a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, as required under the Genius Act. Among the rules is a proposal to require issuers regulated by the agency to comply with BSA and compliance standards proposed by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the Office of Foreign Assets Control. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has put forward a similar proposal. In its comments, ABA said the FinCEN/OFAC framework appropriately treats issuers as financial institutions for BSA purposes and aligns sanctions compliance with other regulated entities. Still, ABA has raised concerns that the proposals do not adequately address the financial crime risks posed by secondary market payment stablecoin activities. It has asked for the following revisions:
“ABA supports FDIC’s and OCC’s adoption of FinCEN and OFAC’s proposed regulatory framework for [stablecoin issuers] to satisfy their respective obligations to implement BSA and sanctions compliance standards under the Genius Act, provided ABA’s recommendations are adopted by FinCEN and OFAC,” the association said. Full ArticleBack to TopFinCEN: FinCEN Permanently Ends Beneficial Ownership Reporting Requirements for Millions of Small Business OwnersAugust 11, 2026
Back to TopABA Banking Journal: ABA, associations express support for FCC ‘know your upstream provider’ proposalAugust 11, 2026
The proposal would require the “downstream” provider in the call’s pathway to collect certain information about the caller from the “upstream” provider — that is, the provider that originated or otherwise transmitted the call to the downstream provider — to better ensure each provider is transmitting only lawful calls. The proposal also would require downstream providers to monitor upstream providers’ call traffic and compliance practices, and to refuse or discontinue service when the evidence shows that an upstream provider is facilitating illegal calls. In addition, the proposal would strengthen the requirements for “A-level” and “B-level” attestations, citing data ABA previously provided demonstrating that originating providers are improperly assigning attestation levels. Under STIR/SHAKEN, calls are “signed” at origination with different levels of “attestation.” A call that receives an “A-level” attestation – the highest form of attestation – means the originating provider knows the caller and knows the caller has the legal right to the number that will be displayed in the recipient’s caller ID. If a call receives A-level attestation, it is eligible for vendors’ call branding designed to signal that the call is from a legitimate source, such as a green “checkmark.” ABA expressed strong support for the FCC’s proposal to specify the criteria that originating providers must satisfy before providing an “attestation” level to a call. “Our associations have long called for the commission to take action to ensure consumers can rely on the information displayed in the caller ID – i.e., that the name and number displayed accurately reflects who placed the call,” the associations said. “We commend the commission for issuing the proposal to stop illegal calls at every stage of the calling ecosystem.” Back to TopCISA News: KrebsonSecurity: Read This Before You Buy That TV Streaming StickJuly 30, 2026
Pedro Falé is a threat researcher with the security firm Bitsight. Falé told KrebsOnSecurity he was able to peer inside a vast and complex ad fraud network by registering an expired domain name that was used to coordinate fake ad clicks across a particularly popular brand of these streaming devices known as H96.
Falé said the domain he scooped up was previously used for telemetry, periodically collecting full hardware information and the entire list of installed apps from tens of thousands of H96 streaming sticks plugged into television sets around the globe. But upon inspecting the traffic being funneled to the domain, he discovered nearly all of the TV boxes transmitting data claimed to be mobile phone models from a variety of manufacturers, including Samsung, Vivo, Huawei, and Xiaomi. “We noticed something was wildly wrong,” Falé said. “Multiple devices reporting to this factory Android TV Box backdoor were ‘phones.'”
The researcher found all of the devices reported having the same two apps installed, and that those apps were made by a company called Zhejiang Fengwo IoT Technology Ltd, an entity founded in 2019 in mainland China which operates an ad-publishing portfolio under the name Fengwo Group. Further investigation into the Fengwo Group revealed it has registered multiple patents that match the inner workings of these apps. “Bitsight TRACE identified several Hong Kong, Singapore, and single person ‘legal’ shell identities used to collect the monetization and traced the operation back to a mainland China company known as Zhejiang Fengwo IoT Technology Co., Ltd, which operates under the Fengwo Group,” Falé wrote in a report released today about their findings. Falé said an analysis of the apps shows they help to coordinate an ad fraud network that uses these H96 devices as a captive traffic source to click on ads at AI-generated websites operated by the Fengwo Group. Bitsight discovered the websites contain machine-generated news articles and graphics across a range of categories, including finance, health, education, gaming, music and food blogs. But they also found none of those sites displayed ads unless the device visiting the page matched the spoofed mobile profile of these H96 devices. AI DIGITAL HUMANSThe domain for the Fengwo Group — fwgcloud[.]com — claims the company is “redefining the boundaries of human-AI interaction,” and that it has created more than 120,000 “AI digital humans” available to rent for everything from emotional companionship to 24/7 customer service and creative design. Falé said the Fengwo Group’s domain shared its SSL certificate data with other domains associated with the apps found on H96 devices, specifically the phone spoofing mechanism. He noted the domain also has an internal wiki platform that directly ties the Fengwo Group to a proprietary implementation of a Google-built visual programming language called Blockly, which was originally designed to help kids learn how to write software. According to Bitsight, the Fengwo Group’s employees use Blockly to build the sham websites, allowing low-skilled operators to drag blocks of code together in their Blockly editor — without any need to understand what the underlying code blocks do or how they work. “An operator can drag blocks together in their Blockly editor, to define each fraud routine, given a task type,” reads Bitsight’s report. “Once the routine is saved, it gets exported as JavaScript and uploaded to the S3 buckets. An operator doesn’t need as much understanding of the underlying technicalities, as it is all set in place for ease of use.” Bitsight even found one of the Fengwo Group app developers mentioning exactly these advantages, noting the developer remarked that “only a small number of highly-skilled developers are needed to build the template execution-unit images,” and that “developers who create execution units from those templates have significantly lower technical requirements, greatly reducing the company’s operating costs.” Falé said if a user’s H96 streaming stick is selected for a specific fraud task, it will be pushed the appropriate Blockly module according to the task desired, which can include silently launching a web browser, visiting websites, browsing pages, managing tabs, and clicking on ads. To ensure the TV boxes masquerading as mobile phones can reliably click on ads displayed via the AI-generated websites, the Fengwo group “fuses three vision and reasoning systems into a single interface,” allowing the bots to correctly identify an ad on the webpage and navigate the site much like a human would, the Bitsight report observed. TV ON? PROXY. TV OFF? AD FRAUDBitsight found the H96 devices were either relaying residential proxy traffic or participating in ad fraud, but never both at the same time. In fact, they concluded that when these TV boxes detect an HDMI signal from an attached television — indicating the user intends to stream video content — the box is usually functioning as a residential proxy. When the TV is off, it switches back to waiting for ad fraud jobs. Falé said he believes the TV boxes are set up this way because its ad fraud activities are far more resource intensive and could interfere with the device’s stated purpose — streaming video content over the Internet. Despite repeated warnings from the FBI and security industry leaders about the security and privacy risks of using these streaming devices, major e-commerce providers like Amazon, Best Buy, Newegg and others continue to sell hundreds of different models and brands that bundle unofficial versions of Google’s Android operating system and are frequently marketed (via online influencers) as a way to access a broad array of streaming services and live broadcasts without a subscription. In addition to enlisting the user’s TV box in ad fraud networks, these off-brand streaming devices almost universally come with residential proxy software pre-installed. This software rents the user’s Internet address out to anonymous paying customers, who run the gamut from aggressive content scraping firms to ticket scalpers and outright cybercriminals. What’s more, because these generic (and generally dirt cheap) TV boxes are all horribly insecure by default and bereft of any kind of authentication, installing one on your home or office network only invites further mischief. In January, the proxy tracking service Synthient documented how multiple botnets had rapidly enslaved millions of TV boxes using a complex interplay of security vulnerabilities in both the residential proxy software and the streaming devices themselves. SHOW ME THE MONEYBitsight said it tracked approximately 38,000 TV boxes globally phoning home to the expired Fengwo Group domain, and based on that number the report estimates this ad fraud network brings in revenues of close to $50,000 a day (not counting substantial revenue from the residential proxy side of the business). However, Falé emphasized that these estimates are highly conservative and based on telemetry from just one of the Fengwo Group’s core (but older) domains. As for the Fengwo Group’s claim to have 120,000 “digital humans” at their disposal, Bitsight’s report concludes it could be just a clever marketing scheme and/or a way to avoid drawing suspicion to the company’s operations. “Historically, when dealing with proxy services or DDoS, we sometimes see these websites undertake inconspicuous facades, so as not to advertise their DDoS capability or botnet size,” Falé wrote in the report. “This could also be the case here.” If the Fengwo Group truly does have tens of thousands of “AI humans” at its beck and call, it does not appear to have dedicated any of them to fielding inquiries from its own website. KrebsOnSecurity sought comment from the Fengwo Group by emailing the contact address listed on the company’s homepage, but the request bounced back with the reply, “Your message couldn’t be delivered to postmaster@fwgcloud[.]com. Their inbox is full, or it’s getting too much mail right now.” As Bitsight’s analysis shows, when it comes to TV boxes and streaming sticks, it’s best to stick to name brands from reputable manufacturers, and then to be sparing and careful with any apps you choose to install on the device — as many of those can bundle residential proxy software as well. Google says consumers can confirm whether or not a device is built with the official Android TV OS and Play Protect certification by following these instructions. Additionally, Synthient maintains a running list of IoT devices that have been known to ship to consumers with residential proxy software and other malicious apps pre-installed. Careful readers will notice Synthient’s list includes other IoT devices apart from streaming sticks and boxes: As the FBI has warned, residential proxy software has also been found in other popular consumer IoT devices from random brands, particularly digital photo frames. Back to TopABA: #BanksNeverAskThat and #PracticeSafeChecks: What’s New in 2026August 26, 2026 | 2:00-3:00pm EDTWe’re excited for the return of ABA’s anti-fraud campaign, #BanksNeverAskThat, and our check fraud campaign, #PracticeSafeChecks! Are you ready to do your part? Before both programs launch on October 1, we’re offering you a sneak peek into what’s new this year. Join us for a free webinar on August 26 to learn about the latest scam and fraud trends and get a walkthrough of everything these campaigns have to offer. Exciting updates in 2026
Back to Top |
The American Bankers Association yesterday
Security experts have been sounding the alarm for years about the risks of using generic TV boxes that promise unlimited content streaming for a one-time fee, warning that they secretly rent the user’s Internet connection out to strangers. But a groundbreaking new analysis finds these devices also routinely spoof themselves as mobile phones clicking ads on AI-generated websites as part of a sprawling operation that seeks to defraud online merchants and advertising networks.
Join banking professionals from across South Dakota for Lead Strong: Women in Banking 2026, an energizing event designed to inspire growth, spark new ideas, and celebrate the power of leadership at every level. This year’s theme, Change the Game, challenges us to think differently, embrace new opportunities, and redefine what’s possible—for ourselves, our organizations, and our industry.
