BankThink

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Stress Tests, Part II: Second round of results of the Federal Reserve's stress tests are in. The big items to note, per the headlines: Ally Financial and BB&T had their capital plans denied; JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs received "conditional" approval for theirs since the Fed has concerns about their "ability to adequately estimate losses" when faced with a severe economic event (Both now have until September to resubmit capital proposals); and...

Megabanks may be able to fight off regulatory forces demanding their corporate downsizing, but a voluntary break up may be the only way to sway public opinion their way.

Empowering the unbanked to save and invest in themselves and others, through technology as simple as text- or Tweet-to-pay, will create opportunities to get people out of poverty.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

The Mary Jo White Hearing: "Not a single senator voiced even slight opposition to President Obama's pick to head the Securities and Exchange Commission," the Post reports, despite what the Journal described as "pointed questions from lawmakers about whether her time spent defending Wall Street banks would impinge on her ability to police Wall Street." Importantly, Mary Jo White indicated flexibility on reforming money market funds, telling the Senate Banking panel that...

Using data commonly available on most core systems, a relatively simple, inexpensive concentration stress testing model can bring value.