BankThink

Mornings Scan: Student Loan Groans; Tough Making Payments Pay

04/22/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

High Cost of College: Student loans and their myriad associated problems are examined by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post. Some lawmakers want to rein in new programs that forgive student loan debt after a set period of time, as they're becoming far too popular and thus too expensive, the Journal reports.The debt-forgiveness plans have a worthy goal, the WSJ article says: no one should have to "[pay]...

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Fannie and Freddie Are Obviously SIFIs

04/21/14

Fannie and Freddie are huge in size, huge in global systemic risk, close to zero in capital, and of fully demonstrated "too big to fail" status. What is stopping the Financial Stability Oversight Council from designating them as systemically important?

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How to Transform Payday Lending

04/21/14

Govern Google, regulate nationally, build on that baseline, evidence externalities and reduce demand in order to transform payday from a great divider into a great unifier.

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Morning Scan: More JPM Reshuffling; Is Square for Sale?

04/21/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

JPM Shuffle: Shao Zili, JPMorgan Chase's chairman and chief executive in China, will step down from those positions and take over as vice chairman of the Asia-Pacific region as soon as a replacement is found. The unofficial official word from the bank Â-- anony-mice leaked a memo Â-- is that Shao wanted "to return to a regional role." Of course, it's hard not to correlate the departure to federal authorities' ongoing investigation...

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Weekly Wrap: TBTF Feedback; Speaking of Stress Tests

04/18/14

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

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What Bank Earnings Coverage Should Focus On

04/17/14

Without meaningful transparency on banksÂ' financial reports, regulatory capital ratios and living wills, anyone writing about bank earnings is a willing actor in banksÂ' quarterly earnings Kabuki theater.

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Why the Fed Would Flunk Its Own Stress Tests

04/17/14

Under its aggressive quantitative easing program, the Fed is borrowing short-term and investing long-term, exposing itself to severe interest rate risk when short-term rates rise, writes former Fed economist Scott Hein.

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Morning Scan: Earnings, Earnings, Earnings ... and More Earnings

04/17/14

Editor's Note: Morning Scan will not publish on Friday, April 18 in observance of the Good Friday holiday. Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Big Investment Bank Earnings: Morgan Stanley's profits rose 18% year-over-year, thanks to a strong performance by its fixed-income division. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs reported a drop in first-quarter profits, in part due to its fixed-income division. Goldman did, however, beat analyst expectations. ...

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What 2014's CCAR Results Mean for Banks in 2015

04/16/14

Smaller bank holding companies are faced with a potentially significant problem if their risk controls are judged insufficient for the current regulatory environment.

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TBTF Is Fading in U.S.'s Rearview Mirror

04/16/14

U.S. banks today are safer, sounder, more secure, transparent, accountable and are performing their critical roles in the global economy.

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