BankThink

As the financial industry scrambles to monetize big data, it would be smart to remember that consumers' growing concerns about privacy issues might staunch the flow of personal information in coming years.

Board members at smaller banks tend to dismiss the importance of the annual self-assessment process. But as board governance attracts growing regulatory scrutiny, directors should embrace the chance to identify areas for improvement.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Making the Grade: If European regulators were being graded on their newly released banking stress tests, what kind of marks would they receive? The European Central Bank would probably have a few points shaved off for the errors and inconsistencies reported by the Wall Street Journal: it misstated the capital ratio of a "large Italian bank" and failed to report on a review of Polish banks' balance sheets because the data was...

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

The Results Are In: Most of the eurozone's big banks have enough capital to survive an economic upset, according to the results of regulators' long-awaited stress tests. Of the 130 banks under review, 13 were identified as needing to shore up $12 billion in additional capital. Italy had the largest share of financial flunkies, with Greece and Cyprus next in line. The Wall Street Journal applauds the European Central Bank for including...

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