BankThink

Women in Banking: Whoa, Nandita Bakhshi; Is JPM Ideal for Women?

03/17/16

Nandita Bakhshi will become CEO of the $76 billion-asset Bank of the West, and a study finds JPMorgan Chase is the most ideal bank for women. Still, it seems as if lip service lives on when it comes to gender diversity, even where Dodd Frank is concerned. Would contentious SEC nominee Hester Peirce change that? Also, how job sharing could help more women rise through the company ranks.

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Fewer Community Banks = More Risk in System

03/17/16

Consolidation is increasing risk to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. while reducing diversification in the industry.

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Postal Banking Didn't Work in 1910 — and It Won't Now

03/17/16

Endorsements from lawmakers such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren of the U.S. Postal Service providing banking services overlook how a similar plan faltered after the Panic of 1907.

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Morning Scan: Fed Sees Fewer Hikes; Attracting and Keeping Millennials

03/17/16

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Fed Sees Fewer Hikes: Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and fellow central bank policymakers announced they expect to raise the benchmark interest rate just twice this year, down from the four hikes expected in their December projections, and, as always, failed to commit to a timetable for the increases. In making the decision, the Fed weighed a strengthening job market and a resilient but moderate U.S. expansion against weak wage growth andÂ...

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Banks Need to Think More Like Apple — Even in Their Branches

03/16/16

Research shows the more consumers interact with branch staff, the more they dislike the brand. To improve their image, banks need to emulate Apple and focus on every customer experience detail Â-- in tech and in person.

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Don't Be Fooled by Overly Rosy Loan Growth Numbers

03/16/16

Loans outpacing GDP and the expressed optimism of CEOs on recent earnings calls are among the signs that growth figures are too good to be true.

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Morning Scan: Q1 Looks 'Grim' for Banks; ABA Wants Rate Hike

03/16/16

Wall Street Journal

Financial firms are using words such as "grim" to describe the trading environment during the first quarter, typically a very active period on Wall Street trading desks. Some analysts predict Wall Street's five biggest banks will report trading revenue of $19.1 billion for Q1, down 16% from a year ago. They see the quarter mirroring the discouraging final months of 2015, when worries over economic growth and commodities prices caused trading activity and...

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Unregulated Shadow Banks Are a Ticking Time Bomb

03/15/16

Risk is building in nonbank companies that are closely linked with regulated institutions but that have not faced the kind of stiff rules imposed on banks since the financial crisis.

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Reality Check for Marketplace Lenders

03/15/16

A leading alternative lender has admitted that balance sheets and liquidity matter, and that it is a problem that such lenders need to keep growing lending volumes to prosper.

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Morning Scan: Goldman to Enter Online Retirement-Savings Field; Car Loan Defaults

03/15/16

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Goldman Going Robo: Goldman Sachs Group will buy Austin, Texas-based Honest Dollar, an online retirement-savings startup. Honest Dollar, which launched in 2015 and raised $3 million in seed funding, targets small-business employees and self-employed individuals who don't have access to traditional employer-sponsored savings plans. The company offers investment portfolios with average expense ratios of 0.1% a year and charges companies a flat monthly fee of $8 to $10 an employee. It is...

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