BankThink

New Basel Head Sets Worthy Priorities

04/13/15

As Basel III gets ready to turn five years old this summer, recently appointed Basel Committee secretary general William Coen is taking the necessary step of ensuring that new capital ratio, liquidity standard and leverage ratio rules work well together.

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How to Keep N.Y.'s BitLicense from Squelching Innovation

04/13/15

The cost of complying with New York State's proposed BitLicense regulations would wipe out many smaller digital currency businesses. But there is a middle ground: placing those businesses under the supervision of a self-regulating incubator that would help them develop robust yet affordable compliance programs.

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Morning Scan: GE Capital Sale Kicks Off; Wells Fargo Expands Investment Banking

04/13/15

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

GE Turns Off Bank Switch: Plenty of digital ink was spilled late Friday and over the weekend about General Electric's decision to sell its GE Capital unit. The Wall Street Journal suggests in one of its takes the exit decision represents a chance for banking and non-bank companies to acquire assets that could transform a company. The largest piece of the business up for sale is GE's $74 billion-asset commercial lending and...

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Pick on Someone Your Own Systemic Importance: Weekly Wrap

04/10/15

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including thoughts on regulatory complexity, Jamie Dimon's defense of the megabank model, and how vulnerable banks really are to tech startups.

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Like Airlines and Pharma, Banking's Too Big to Disrupt

04/10/15

Banking has less in common with industries like music and entertainment than it does with long-entrenched pharmaceutical, grocery store and airline businesses Â-- all of which can absorb the threat of new entrants by adapting to them.

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Morning Scan: GE Out of Banking; Rand Paul Takes Bitcoin, Natch

04/10/15

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

A Farewell to Banking: For General Electric, the banking business has lost its allure. The company plans to sell or spin off the bulk of its finance unit, GE Capital, over the next two years, returning to a focus on its industrial manufacturing business. Although the $500 billion-asset GE Capital brought in roughly half its parent company's earnings, it also came with a slew of regulations and risks that apparently weren't worth...

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Dimon's Defense of Big-Bank Model: An Exercise in Hubris

04/09/15

JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon tried to defend his bank's size and scope by suggesting that community banks are just as vulnerable in a crisis. But he succeeded only in proving that Wall Street firms will make the same mistakes all over again unless the government takes steps to disincentivize their risky behavior.

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Payday Loan Reform Won't Kill Short-Term Credit—Just Make It Safer

04/09/15

While the CFPB's proposed rules may force payday lenders to adjust their business models, well-meaning ones should be able to operate in this new framework.

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Swipe Fee Cap Would Come at a Cost to Data Security

04/09/15

Merchants argue that Fed policy allows banks to overcharge stores for debit-card swipe fees, resulting in higher prices for consumers. But the revenue banks earn on interchange fees benefits all Americans, since financial institutions invest a portion of it in developing security technologies to protect consumer data.

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Morning Scan: Dimon Rattles Regulators' Cages; Prosper's Fresh Funding Round

04/09/15

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Dimon Throws Down: Outspoken JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon isn't afraid to raise some hackles Â-- and that tendency is on full display in his annual letter to shareholders. The Financial Times and Bloomberg both focus on Dimon's prediction that regulatory requirements will be to blame for the next financial crisis. His letter argues that capital and liquidity rules have limited banks' ability to withstand market turmoil, and predicts the next crisis...

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