BankThink

Are Cries to Break Up Big Banks About Reform ... Or Revenge?

03/19/13

Breaking up big banks as way to score our pound of flesh post-financial crisis could result in increased unemployment, higher credit costs for all and a transfer of risk from banks to lightly regulated shadow financial institutions.

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Federal Regulators Must Tread Softly on Executive Pay

03/19/13

Rewriting the longstanding structures of corporate law and the roles and responsibilities of bank boards could create chaos in the global corporate and financial structures.

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Citi Settles with Investors (Again); Cyprus Update; Levin Explains 'Whale' Hearing

03/19/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Citi Settles: In a story that will sound familiar, Citigroup has agreed to pay $730 million to settle claims that it misled its bond and preferred stock investors about possible exposure to losses on securities backed by subprime mortgages. The settlement is now the second-largest class action settlement related to the financial crisis. Bank of America's $2.4 billion payout to shareholders over the health of Merrill Lynch still takes the top spot....

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Congress, Not FHFA, Should Be Reforming the GSEs

03/19/13

There's an emerging bipartisan consensus on the way forward for the secondary mortgage market. But as Congress has punted, the FHFA is taking significant steps without hearings or public discussion.

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Banks Should See Stress Tests as an Opportunity, Not a Chore

03/18/13

If done right, the Fed's stress tests will motivate a renaissance in enterprise risk assessment, breaking the black box and bringing needed transparency to banks' exposures.

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Basel III Will Force Small Banks Out of Mortgages

03/18/13

Capital requirements for community banks should be raised outside of the Basel III process and through a much more simplified system of risk-weighted assets.

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U.S. Policies Grow Big Banks, Shrink Small Ones

03/18/13

Three things are driving the growth of large banks: market demand, access to capital and regulatory burden created by existing and forthcoming legislation.

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Cyprus Bailout's Harsh Terms for Depositors Spark ATM Runs, Outrage

03/18/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Cyprus: Bailouts? Been there. Bank runs? Done that. But the European rescue package for this Mediterranean island has introduced a cruel twist: Making depositors pay. All depositors. The proposed one-time "stability levy" would not only take 9.9% out of uninsured deposits above 100,000 euros, but also 6.75% of insured deposits below that threshold, no matter how small the savings. This detail sparked panic, as Cypriots queued up at ATMs over the weekend...

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How Cryptocurrencies Could Upend Banks' Monetary Role

03/15/13

Digital money like Bitcoin opens up possibilities for banking without central planners or a lender of last resort, where interest rates and reserve requirements are driven purely by the market.

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Outdated Thinking Undermines Grand Risk Management Experiment

03/15/13

Regulators and governments worldwide have started a grand experiment to organize a bar code-like identifier for financial market participants. But once-innovative financial utilities may prevent this endeavor from succeeding.

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