BankThink

Weekly Wrap: Will Wall Street Regret Its Budget-Bill Coup?

12/19/14

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

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One Year After Target Breach, Consumers Vulnerable As Ever

12/19/14

No amount of diligence on the part of financial institutions will help prevent future data breaches until retailers are subject to the same national data security standards that apply to banks and credit unions

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Morning Scan: Smoking-Gun Memo Leads to Big Fines; Mobile Banking Study

12/19/14

Wall Street Journal Fresno, Calif.: home of raisin farms, a college football team called the Bulldogs, and (who knew?) a federal prosecutor's office that dug up the memo that led to $37 billion in bank fines stemming from the subprime mortgage crisis. The Journal reports on Richard Elias, an assistant U.S. Attorney who discovered JPMorgan Chase documents while working in the Justice Department's Fresno office that led to successful prosecutions of big banks. The JPMorgan memosÂ...

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Dodd-Frank Change Won't Increase Risk of Taxpayer Bailouts

12/18/14

The repeal of the swaps push-out provision will reduce banks' operational costs, but it makes little difference in terms of increasing the size of the government safety net. The reason: with or without the rule, the government protects the swaps contracts of the largest institutions.

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Big Banks' Swaps Push-Out Repeal Is a Pyrrhic Victory

12/18/14

Big banks have successfully reversed a Dodd-Frank provision that would have required them to move swaps from their FDIC-insured depository institutions into uninsured subsidiaries. But in so doing, they have inadvertently thrust the issue of implicit subsidies back into the spotlight.

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Morning Scan: A Patient Fed; Whistle While You Work

12/18/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Fed Stays Patient: As expected, the Fed said on Wednesday that it would remain patient when it comes to raising interest rates, and the Journal, New York Times, Financial Times and Washington Post all produced reports on the Fed's meeting. Fed Chair Janet Yellen said the Fed will likely raise interest rates next year, but no sooner than late April, as the central bank exercises patience in waiting for the precise momentÂ...

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Surprise: State Licensing Laws Could Help Payments Innovation

12/17/14

Rigid state licensing laws have compelled some payments startups to partner with licensed money transmitters in order to get their programs off the ground. That's a good thing.

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FHFA's Permanent Conservatorship Ignores the Law

12/17/14

The government conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was never meant to authorize lasting control over the housing sector, according to one of the people who advised Congress on the Housing and Economic Recovery Act.

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Morning Scan: Is the Fed 'Patient'?; B of A, Citi Stumble on Mortgage Settlement

12/17/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Fed's New Patience?: Looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy statement this afternoon and Fed Chair Janet Yellen's briefing, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times offer contrasting views on the million-dollar question of when rates could rise. The Journal says the Fed and Yellen may very well drop from the official statement that the Federal Open Market Committee expects to keep short-term rates near zero for "a considerable...

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Tiered Regulation for Banks Is a Tax on Growth

12/16/14

Size-based regulation is designed to curb banks' appetite for growth. This will affect every operational and strategic decision that banks make going forward.

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