BankThink

Morning Scan: Timing of Interest-Rate Hike Questioned; Subprime Borrowing Booms

02/19/15

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Tapping the Brakes?: Hold your horses on that rate increase. According to analyses in the Financial Times and the New York Times, members of the Federal Open Market Committee appear to remain divided over when to start raising short-term interest rates, based on minutes of the committee's Jan. 27-28 meeting, released on Wednesday. (The Wall Street Journal, however, offers a somewhat-more bullish view of the minutes.) A "premature" rise in rates could...

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Beneficial Ownership Rules Would Drag Criminals into Daylight

02/18/15

Right now, financial institutions are not required to know the identity of the living, breathing person behind accounts owned by legal entities. The beneficial ownership rules proposed by Fincen would help expose money launderers, tax evaders and criminals.

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Fed Should Tread Carefully in Faster Payments Plan

02/18/15

Encouraging the financial industry to explore faster payments is all well and good. Effectively directing it to do so, however, is beyond the Fed's authority.

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Morning Scan: Prosecutors Raid HSBC's Swiss Offices; BofA CEO Takes a Pay Cut

02/18/15

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Swiss Search HSBC Offices: Geneva public prosecutors launched what appeared to be a surprise raid on HSBC's Swiss offices Wednesday morning as part of a criminal probe into the bank's alleged money-laundering misdeeds. Prosecutors issued a public statement saying the search came in response to "recent public revelations" about the Swiss unit, an apparent reference to the vast files provided by whistleblower Herve Falciani to several media outlets. Among other things, theÂ...

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Why the 'Too Big to Fail' Problem Just Won't Die

02/17/15

Big banks have only grown larger and more complex since the financial crisis, and there is reason to doubt the efficacy of measures aimed at preventing the risk of another taxpayer bailout.

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Congress Lets Banks Out of the Doghouse

02/17/15

The confirmation hearing for attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch suggested a shift in legislators' attitudes toward banks. Rather than the usual focus on banks' alleged misdeeds, lawmakers cast them as victims of government overreach in Operation Choke Point.

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Morning Scan: Russian-Speaking Group's Cyber Attacks Detailed; Losing Their Patience

02/17/15

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

The Russian Hacker Mob: Russian-speaking gangs of hackers have stolen millions of dollars since 2013 from banks in the U.S., Eastern Europe and Russia and according to the Russian computer-security firm Kaspersky Lab, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Financial Times' report on the same study said the thieves' total haul may be closer to $1 billion. Most alarming is the lab's claim the cyberattack is still active. The Kaspersky Lab issued...

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'Warren Is Using Community Banks as Human Shields': Weekly Wrap

02/13/15

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week.

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Corporate Culture Is Not Something You Pick Like Upholstery

02/13/15

A bank's culture cannot be chosen. Its values and goals can be. And an appropriate combination of values and goals then creates the environment to achieve a positive and lasting culture.

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Morning Scan: JPMorgan Executives Out Amid Asia Probe; What's Next for Amex?

02/13/15

Editor's note: Morning Scan will not publish on Monday, Feb. 16 in observance of the Presidents' Day holiday. We'll be back on Tuesday, Feb. 17. Receiving Wide Coverage ...

JPMorgan's Asian Shake-Up: JPMorgan Chase is forcing two executives out the door amid a federal investigation into the bank's hiring practices in Asia, anonymous sources told the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. The executives are Todd Marin, vice chairman of Asia Pacific investment banking, and Catherine Leung,...

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