Good morning. The Biden administration blacklisted a Russian-owned cryptocurrency exchange for allegedly helping launder ransomware payments, an unprecedented action meant to deter future cyber-extortion attacks by disrupting their primary means of profit.

The targeting of SUEX OTC marks the first time the Treasury Department has sanctioned a digital currency platform. The Treasury Department also issued fresh warnings to the private sector that businesses risk penalties and fines for paying ransoms or handling such transactions, especially if they fail to report those activities to authorities.

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The actions on Tuesday are the latest effort by the Biden administration to curtail the growing problem of ransomware attacks, which are estimated to plunder hundreds of millions of dollars annually from American businesses and in recent months have hobbled critical U.S. infrastructure. Russian criminal hacker groups are responsible for a large portion of ransomware strikes against the West, officials say, making the issue a diplomatic concern for President Biden as well. It also sets the stage for a broader sanctioning of the crypto sector as the U.S. acts to weed out its use by criminals, terrorists and others.

Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said the sanctioning of SUEX should be seen as a warning to other bad actors in the digital currency marketplace, reflecting the administration’s intention to “disrupt and deter these criminals by going after their financial enablers.”

Join us on Oct. 12 for the WSJ Risk & Compliance Forum. The virtual program includes sessions on anti-money laundering laws, emerging risks, compliance and cryptocurrencies, lessons from Wirecard and workshops on ESG reporting and responding to ransomware. You can register here.

Swedbank AB said Tuesday it has launched a search process to find a new chief compliance officer after its current compliance officer, Ingrid Harbo, decided to retire.

Ms. Harbo, who has been a member of the Swedish bank’s group executive committee since 2019, will leave the company on March 31, 2022, and remain in her role until then, Swedbank said in a statement Tuesday.

A Justice Department-led panel is investigating Zoom Video Communications Inc.’s deal to buy an American customer-service software company, citing potential national-security risks posed by the U.S. videoconferencing giant’s China ties.

The department said the interagency committee—known as Team Telecom—needed to review a license application that arose from the San Jose, Calif.-based company’s nearly $15 billion deal to buy Five9 Inc. to see if it “poses a risk to the national security or law enforcement interests” of the U.S., according to a letter posted on the Federal Communications Commission website. The department said there could be a risk from “the foreign relationships and ownership” associated with the application.

The department, joined by six states and the District of Columbia, filed the lawsuit in a Massachusetts federal court.

American and JetBlue announced their alliance in July 2020, saying boosting their offerings in the Northeast by marketing one another’s flights on certain routes would allow them to become more formidable competitors at the three New York area airports and in Boston.

• Medicare insurers drew $9.2 billion in federal payments in one year through controversial billing practices, with 20 companies benefiting disproportionately and together accounting for more than half of the total, according to federal health investigators.
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• Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler said Tuesday he doesn’t see much long-term viability for cryptocurrencies, underscoring the importance of protecting investors in the market and bringing it under regulatory oversight.
   
• Two advocacy groups said two senior Federal Reserve officials who traded stocks and other investments while setting monetary policy should lose their jobs, while a former senior Fed adviser said one of the men should be fired and the other should take leave pending an investigation.
   
• The biggest U.S. and European banks oppose strict new rules that would require them to set aside a dollar in capital for every dollar of bitcoin they own, a group of trade associations representing the lenders told the top global standard setter for banking regulation.

China’s high-profile crackdowns on property developers, technology firms and other private enterprises are starting to weigh on business activity and add to financial risks in the country, raising the potential that Beijing’s campaigns could harm the broader economy.

Over the past year, China has taken numerous regulatory actions, including fines and other penalties, affecting a range of industries as it tries to reduce inequality, rein in excessive debt and force businesses to hew more closely to the Communist Party line. Beijing officials signaled that the country’s strong recovery from Covid-19 provided a window of opportunity to act, enabling them to tackle social and economic imbalances without derailing its overall growth trajectory.

• Developer China Evergrande’s ‘Darkest Moment’ Will Pass, Boss Tells Staff

• The fast-spreading Delta variant of Covid-19 has slowed the pace of the global economic recovery but won’t derail it, according to new forecasts released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
   
• Finance executives in the retail industry continue to face a multitude of challenges as they plan for the fall and the holiday season despite being generally optimistic on their companies’ earnings outlook.

• Facebook Inc.’s Oversight Board said it is reviewing the company’s practice of holding high-profile users to separate sets of rules, citing apparent inconsistencies in the way the social-media giant makes decisions.
   
• AutoNation Inc. said it appointed the former head of Fiat Chrysler as its next chief executive, tapping an auto-industry veteran to steer the nation’s largest publicly traded car-dealership chain out of the pandemic.

• McDonald’s Corp. said all toys included in its Happy Meals will be made from more sustainable materials by 2025 world-wide, as large companies look to make their operations more environmentally friendly.
   
• Google said it is buying a Manhattan office building for $2.1 billion, one of the clearest signals yet of big technology companies’ growing appetite for office space, even as these firms embrace remote work.
   
• FedEx Corp. cut its financial outlook as labor shortages caused expenses to soar in the latest quarter and shipping demand unexpectedly slowed due to supply-chain disruptions.
   
• There appears to be no sailing around the breathtaking backup of container ships off the jammed ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Newly arriving vessels are adding to a record-breaking flotilla waiting to unload cargo that on Sunday reached 73 ships, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California, nearly double the number a month ago and expanding a fleet that has become a stark sign of the disruptions and delays roiling global supply chains.

Apple Inc. is working on technology to help diagnose depression and cognitive decline, aiming for tools that could expand the scope of its burgeoning health portfolio, according to people familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Achieving its health ambitions could depend on consumers’ trusting Apple with sensitive data, underscoring why privacy is a business imperative for the company. The new research comes as Apple faces intense scrutiny over how it planned to access user data to warn authorities of child pornography, which raised new concerns about the company’s commitment to privacy after years of battles against governments seeking to access their customers’ devices.

Send comments to the Risk & Compliance editor, Jack Hagel, at jack.hagel@wsj.com

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