Overseas news briefs: Paypal settlement, jobs cut as Wells Fargo improves, Deutsche looks at diversi

PayPal has agreed to pay US$7.7 million to settle US Treasury charges over lax screening and failure of its technology, causing the firm to violate multiple sanctions programmes against Iran, Cuba and Sudan. In addition, PayPal processed 136 transactions connected to an account registered to Kursad Zafer Cire, a Turkish man on a sanctions list for weapons of mass destruction proliferation, Finextra reports. This provoked a line of speculative thought on the place of bitcoin and other crypto currency systems like Ripple, and whether transactions that violate AML/CTF rules should attract similar punishment.
US major Wells Fargo said it would cut 1000 jobs and close its home-lending servicing office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Reuters reports. As the US economy has improved over the last two years, the bank has had to deal with fewer delinquent payments and fewer customers have required assistance staying in their homes, the bank said on Wednesday.
Deutsche Bank is winning support from German politicians for a plan to transform the country's biggest bank into a company more like Goldman Sachs Group, while improving its capital levels, Bloomberg reports. The two banks already compete in asset management, investment banking and trading. If it were to sell its retail bank operation, Deutsche would lose funding from individuals' savings and become more dependent on deposits from wealth management clients.