BankThink

If financial firms are serious about incorporating gender and ethnic diversity into their leadership teams, they need to encourage women to apply for promotions and implement more flexible work schedules.

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A Patient Fed: When analyzing the Federal Reserve's statements about its timeline for raising short-term interest rates, it helps to have practiced close reading in college. The Fed said Wednesday it plans to be "patient" in adjusting monetary policy, which "means the central bank isn't likely to raise rates at its next two policy meetings," the Wall Street Journal reports. In other words, a rate hike wouldn't come until June at the...

Critics of online alternative lenders argue that their underwriting models are unproven and that a financial crisis could bring the whole industry crashing down. But while Lending Club and other startups may be relatively new to the scene, they're no greenhorns.

A spate of recent account closings at churches and charities suggests that Operation Choke Point and other de-risking directives are causing collateral damage to faith-based organizations.

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Pushback Against ECB Rules: Last week's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, gave European bankers unhappy with stricter capital rules a chance to air their grievances. The Financial Times reports bankers in Davos argued that tough capital requirements will render the European Central Bank's quantitative easing less effective. They say the initiatives work at cross-purposes: QE is meant to encourage investors to take on riskier assets that invigorate the economy, while the...