BankThink

How to Improve the Corker-Warner GSE Bill

08/06/13

The promising Senate bill needs to do more to ensure an affordable market for multifamily mortgages, aid historically underserved borrowers and protect struggling homeowners.

[more]

Here's One More Third-Party Compliance Risk for Banks to Worry About

08/06/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Stuck in the Middle: Banks are once again caught between a crusading regulator and a frowned-upon fringe of the financial industry. New York Department of Financial Services Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky warned 35 online lenders to stop offering loans that violate the state usury cap, and asked 117 banks to stop these lenders from debiting borrowers' accounts via ACH. "Banks have proven to be — even if unintentionally — an essential cog in…

[more]

Only Congress Thinks Main Street Banks Are TBTF

08/06/13

Removing the arbitrary size designation for bank SIFIs would reduce costly regulation for regionals, encourage industrywide competition and concentrate regulators' efforts on firms that actually warrant attention.

[more]

Some Sobering Lessons from Freddie Mac's Risk-Sharing Deal

08/05/13

The $22.5 billion Structured Agency Credit Risk transaction serves its purpose, but shows how much more work and thinking needs to be done to redesign the housing finance system.

[more]

Sobering Lessons from Freddie Mac's Risk-Sharing Deal

08/05/13

The $22.5 billion Structured Agency Credit Risk transaction serves its purpose, but shows how much more work and thinking needs to be done to redesign the housing finance system.

[more]

Mobile Chat Has a Place in Every Banking App

08/05/13

The feature presents a win-win scenario for banks and their customers as well as an opportunity for mobile-centric financial startups that can serve as the catalyst for widespread adoption.

[more]

As Goldman Turns, Commodity Drought, Sen. Brown Does Banking

08/05/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Fabulous Fab Continued: On a summer Monday when many Wall Streeters and journalists alike are pondering the sand between their toes, enough personnel remain on duty to produce a hefty dose of news on Goldman Sachs (GS) and its former trader, Fabrice "Fabulous Fab" Tourre. This morning's installments include one from the Wall Street Journal concluding that Tourre and his former employer have been inextricably linked for a while longer by a...

[more]

Improving Customer Relationships; Closing Out Our 'Future Model of Banking' Series

08/02/13

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

[more]

The Merchant and the King: A Payments Parable

08/02/13

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real merchants, bankers, lobbyists, or politicians, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

[more]

'Fabulous' Fab Found Liable; RBS Names CEO; More B of A Mortgage Woes?

08/02/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

More Mortgage Woes for B of A? Bank of America has disclosed that the Justice Department intends to file civil charges against the bank over claims it mishandled "one or two jumbo prime securitizations." The Securities and Exchange Commission is also weighing civil charges related to how B of A brokerage house Merrill Lynch handled its securities and the New York Attorney General's office is recommending action against Merrill Lynch over residential...

[more]