BankThink

Obsessing About Rules Won't Improve Culture

12/22/15

A healthy bank culture can only be built from within, rather than as a compliance exercise to satisfy regulators.

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Morning Scan: Credit Suisse Blasts UBS for Recruiting Brokers; SEC's In-House Court Blamed for Delays

12/22/15

Wall Street Journal

Wells Fargo forged a deal with Credit Suisse to recruit the Swiss bank's U.S. brokers in its private banking business, as Credit Suisse moves to wind down that part of its wealth management group. But UBS has been unfairly raiding Credit Suisse's broker ranks, according to an arbitration claim Credit Suisse filed with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Journal reported. ...

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Why Grandma and Grandpa Still Matter to Banking

12/21/15

Banks face immense challenges trying to keep up with technology, but they also must cater to older customers with big deposit accounts who still use their branch.

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Morning Scan: JPMorgan Fined for Conflicts; Banks Beef Up Cybersecurity

12/21/15

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

JPMorgan's Wrist Slapped: JPMorgan Chase will pay $307 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission probes into the bank's alleged failure to tell its wealth-management clients about conflicts of interest. One allegation is JPMorgan didn't tell clients it was putting their money in more-expensive funds that JPMorgan itself managed, the Wall Street Journal said. Also, JPMorgan put clients' money in third-party funds that paid fees to JPMorgan....

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Don't Blame Regulators for Dearth of New Banks

12/18/15

De novo activity has remained at a trickle and the reason is investing in a new bank just isn't attractive as it used to be.

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Morning Scan: Rate Hike Fallout, Continued; GSE Revival Hopes Squashed

12/18/15

Receiving Wide Coverage…

Fed Fallout Continues: The results of the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates continue to become clear. On Thursday, the initial results of the Fed's rate experiment came in – and so far, it's a success. The federal funds rate moved to 0.35% in early morning trading, well within the range of 0.25% to 0.5% that the central bank had announced. The rate demonstrated what the Wall Street Journal termed an "orderly"...

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Women in Banking: Ellen Costello Returns; FemTech Fail

12/17/15

Citi adds two more female directors, including Ellen Costello; social media allows small banks to connect with people who aren't coming into the branch, says one of our community bankers of the year (and if you're on Twitter, you probably already know who), and Mary Wisniewski asks, how can fintech hope to disrupt banking when it's no different than banking? (Hard not to notice the sexism and the dearth of women when you are one.)

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Payday Loan Crackdown Hurts Fight Against Terror

12/17/15

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's payday loan proposal threatens many money services businesses on the front lines of stopping money-laundering and terrorist financing.

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Dear FHA, Ignore the Doubters

12/17/15

Now is not the time for the Federal Housing Administration Â-- which has stayed strong amid turmoil Â-- to reduce its market share.

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Morning Scan: Fed's Rate Hike Implications Scrutinized

12/17/15

Receiving Wide Coverage…

It Finally Happened: And in the end it was unanimous. After more than half a decade the Federal Reserve finally raised interest rates, setting the federal fund rate target range to between 0.25% and 0.50%. To raise rates, though, the Fed has come to rely on a new tool, its so-called "overnight reverse repo" program (RRP), the Financial Times notes. Through the RPP, approved counterparties offer cash loans in exchange for Treasuries under...

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