BankThink

Wall Street Journal

Citigroup is among at least a dozen companies that have given in to activist shareholders' demands to nominate directors, a strategy known as proxy access. Calpers, one of the largest activist shareholders, describes the trend as a "sea change," while the New York City Comptroller said it's only a matter of time before most companies allow for proxy access. New York Times ...

One of the most successful startup banks in a generation is turning over its keys to a California bank. Institutional ownership and the prospect of slower growth may have prompted Square 1 to make the deal.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including the benefits of regulating banks by complexity rather than size and how to make the Fed's stress tests more effective.

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Practice Makes Perfect: Have U.S. banks finally cracked the code on stress tests? Whatever your opinion, there's an article that will reaffirm it. The Wall Street Journal suggests the Fed's annual capital review still keeps banks guessing, pointing out that Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley all overshot their proposed shareholder payouts by a significant margin. They collectively shaved off at least $11 billion in payouts in order to meet theÂ...

There is a leadership void in payments innovation. The Fed has the ability and the historic precedent to take up the mantle.