Good morning. Mortgage company Bayview Asset Management will face a $20 million penalty over a data breach and its alleged failure to cooperate with regulators in the aftermath.

• The allegations: Bayview, a Coral Gables, Fla.-based investment manager that owns mortgage-servicing firms, had deficient information technology practices and suffered a 2021 data breach that affected 5.8 million customers, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors said Wednesday. Bayview then failed to cooperate with regulators as they sought information, said CSBS, an organization that represents financial regulators in U.S. states and territories.
   
• Remediation: Bayview has agreed to take corrective actions, including improving its cybersecurity programs, and also to undergo independent assessment and make reports to state regulators for three years.
   
• Cyber risks: The banking sector is regulated by a number of federal agencies and their counterparts in state capitals. Regulators at all levels have emphasized cybersecurity as a major risk, particularly as financial technology startups proliferate and banks increasingly turn to third parties to help service customers.

H&R Block to pay $7 million to settle FTC case alleging deceptive advertising. 

The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday said it finalized an order to H&R Block requiring the tax-preparation company to make changes to its practices ahead of the coming tax season and pay a $7 million fine.

The order comes after the FTC in February 2024 filed a complaint against the Kansas City, Mo., company that alleged it used deceptive marketing and unfairly deleted consumers’ tax data when they downgraded products.

Panama Canal CEO says meeting Trump’s demands ‘will lead to chaos.’

The leader of the Panama Canal Authority denied President-elect Donald Trump’s claims that China is controlling the vital trade route and said Trump’s suggestion that U.S. ships get preferential rates “will lead to chaos.”

“The accusations that China is running the Canal are unfounded,” Ricaurte Vásquez Morales said in an interview Wednesday. “China has no involvement whatsoever in our operations.”

• OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman is being sued by his sister over allegations that he sexually abused her for several years when they were children. Altman denies the accusations.
   
• The U.K. competition regulator said it could approve chip design software group Synopsys’s $35 billion purchase of Ansys after the companies offered to sell off business units to ease regulators’ concerns.
   
• Meta Platforms will let some users browse eBay listings on its Facebook Marketplace platform after the EU ruled that the link between its classified-ads service and flagship social network undermined competition.

China expands consumer subsidies to boost spending as tariff risk looms.

China is widening the scope of its consumer goods trade-in program this year, as Beijing intensifies efforts to convince cautious households to spend as rising external uncertainties threaten exports’ ability to prop up economic growth.

The National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planner, said Wednesday that the government will include more products in its home appliance trade-in program this year, extending state subsidies to microwave ovens, water purifiers, dishwasher and rice cookers.

• Eurozone business sentiment declined further in December as industrial woes were exacerbated by political instability and the threat of tariffs from the U.S.
   
• An Israel-Lebanon cease-fire that calmed months of cross-border bloodshed is being strained as the two sides accuse each other of violations and the U.S. races to make sure the deal holds.
   
• The Israeli military said that it had retrieved the body of a hostage who had been held in the Gaza Strip, as the Biden administration struggles to secure a deal that would pause the fighting between Israel and Hamas and bring home dozens of hostages before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
   
• After President-elect Donald Trump’s victory at the polls, Canadian officials began racing to rebuild “Team Canada”—the bipartisan group of federal, provincial and business officials led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who pushed back against Trump’s tariffs in 2018. Today, Team Canada has a problem: It is leaderless.

• At least five people were killed and tens of thousands were forced to evacuate as multiple wildfires devastated the Los Angeles area and stretched the region’s firefighting resources to their limits.
   
• The Pacific Palisades neighborhood has long been home to some of L.A.’s wealthiest residents. On Wednesday, they worried about whether their homes would survive. 

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