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A federal regulator criticized Wells Fargo for engaging in unfair and deceptive practices and failing to manage risks, and said it had not set aside enough money to pay back the customers it harmed, the New York Times reported on Saturday. The confidential report, prepared by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency criticizes Wells Fargo for forcing hundreds of thousands of borrowers to buy unneeded auto insurance when they took out a car loan, as well as its handling of the problems once they were detected. The regulators’ report, sent to the bank last week, is preliminary. The comptroller’s findings could have a significant impact on the bank. The report stated that Wells Fargo had most likely underestimated how much it would cost to reimburse harmed customers. And it could force the bank to curb, or at least more closely monitor, its practices across the entire company.

U.S. officials are considering whether to remove federal oversight of insurer American International Group Inc., the Wall Street Journal reported today. The Financial Stability Oversight Council, a group of senior regulators, was set to discuss the matter at a meeting today. No final decision has been made, and the outcome of the discussion isn’t certain. It is possible the council could decide not to vote on the matter today, delaying the decision until a future meeting. Removing stricter oversight of AIG would be a symbolic step: The company was at the center of the global markets meltdown in 2008 and was effectively nationalized through a government bailout that topped $180 billion. That made it a poster child for financial excesses, and was one of the reasons for the creation of the oversight council in the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial regulatory law. In 2013, the oversight council determined AIG posed a risk to the economy and designated it a “systemically important financial institution,” or SIFI. It was the first time the council had used its main Dodd-Frank power. The label subjects AIG to stricter oversight than it would otherwise face, including supervision by the Federal Reserve.

Big national carriers like State Farm and Allstate cut back on writing homeowners’ insurance policies in Florida years ago, citing catastrophic risks and unhelpful state regulators, the New York Times reported today. Those reductions left a vacuum that was filled, initially, with a state-owned insurer, Citizens Property Insurance. Eventually, the state offered incentives to coax some brave new insurers into the market. As a result, all that stands between many Florida homeowners and potential ruin is one state-owned insurer and dozens of relatively little-known companies that do most — or all — of their business in the state. They all have the benefit of the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, which, with no major storms in the past 12 years, has $17 billion at the ready — a sum that may not be nearly enough.

Hurricane Irma’s westward shift will probably inflict heightened damage on people and businesses unable to adjust to its new path in time, while the storm fuels floods that many insurance policies don’t cover, Bloomberg News reported. Along Florida’s west coast, many residents thought they would avoid the worst of it, and then found themselves with too little time to fully prepare, according to Duncan Ellis, the U.S. property practice leader at Marsh & McLennan Cos.’ main brokerage unit. Total damage from Irma could reach about $49 billion, with $19 billion picked up by private insurers, according to Enki Research risk modeler Chuck Watson. 

Tropical Storm Harvey is upending the flow of oil and petroleum all around the world — a consequence of the growing influence of the U.S. in the global energy industry, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Since the last time a major storm passed through the Gulf Coast, vast quantities of oil and natural gas have been unlocked from shale formations in the U.S. While production from these fields accounts for just a fraction of the global oil market, that output now feeds a huge volume of gasoline, chemicals, plastics and crude exports, which means Harvey will have repercussions of global proportions. And the U.S. Gulf Coast has been at the center of this shift. The area has become an increasingly critical link in the global energy chain. Shipments from the region now satisfy 6 percent of global demand for oil and other liquid petroleum fuels — twice as much as in 2012, according to Barclays PLC.

Prudential Financial Inc. is laying the groundwork to escape the government’s label that it’s too big to fail, a move that would dramatically reduce federal oversight of the largest U.S. life insurer, Bloomberg News reported today. Prudential is preparing to push a federal watchdog — the Financial Stability Oversight Council — to remove it from a list of nonbanks that regulators concluded would threaten the financial system if they collapsed. With business-friendly officials appointed by President Donald Trump taking over FSOC, the Newark, New Jersey-based company sees an opening, said the people, who asked not to be named because a final decision hasn’t been made. And the Treasury Department is expected to release a report as soon as next month criticizing how the government has gone about designating companies such as Prudential, which could provide momentum for the insurer to get out.

Any legal decision on whether the largest U.S. life insurer MetLife Inc. should be labeled "too big to fail" will probably come after the Trump administration defines its stance on the designation, Reuters reported yesterday. A U.S. appeals court said on Wednesday that a U.S. government appeal of a ruling last year that the label was wrongly applied to MetLife would remain in abeyance until further court order. The label indicates companies that are not banks are still so large and interconnected they could damage the financial system if they fail. Both parties are to file motions on the case's future by Nov. 17 or within 30 days of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin issuing a report on how the government determines non-bank financial institutions are "systemically important." The designation, which triggers heightened oversight, is decided by the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), made up of the country's top regulators.