BankThink

Swap High-Rate, Short-Term Loans for Low-Rate, Pro-Consumer Credit

02/12/13

Developing new online platforms to lower APRs to 365% is a waste of resources. Instead, lenders can tackle the payday problem by partnering together, cultivating loyalty and capping expected default rates.

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How Do You Reinvent the Payday Loan? Scrap It

02/12/13

The traditional payday loan structure should cease to serve as the standard by which innovation in this credit space is measured.

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B of A Snubs Gun Makers as Banking Becomes Politicized

02/12/13

Banks are beginning to use considerable discretion in deciding what constitutes an illegal act and sometimes even an immoral act. Freeze the funds first - ask questions later.

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Will Banks Ever Be Digital Privacy 'Heroes'?

02/12/13

The bulwarks of financial privacy may, by default, become unsanctioned, underground networks like Bitcoin and start-ups run by youngsters brazen, or naïve, enough to test the legal and regulatory limits.

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Two on the Griddle: Mary Jo White and Jack Lew

02/12/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

More on Mary Jo White: The papers scrutinize the financial disclosures of Obama's nominee to lead the SEC. Among other things, they reveal how much she and her husband have made at their respective white-shoe law firms (at least $16 million combined) and the couple's plan to avoid conflicts of interest if she's confirmed (he'd convert his partnership in Cravath, Swaine & Moore to a nonequity one and recuse himself from dealing...

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The Risky Businesses of Banks Chasing Yield

02/11/13

The stress of margin compression, combined with the need to generate additional income to maintain investors' return on equity hurdles, are driving more and more community banks into riskier activities.

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Why Some Payments Should Remain Anonymous

02/11/13

A cashless society is all well and good. But without the option of private, untraceable payments, life would become unbearable and institutions like marriage and religion could suffer.

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The Financial Crisis Is Now Considered a Historical Period, Just Like the Roman Empire

02/11/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Barclays Restructuring: After six months on the job, CEO Antony Jenkins will announce a restructuring on Tuesday that "is expected to leave the bank's strategy largely intact," according to the Journal. The British giant's investment bank will slash 2,000 jobs, or 10% of the unit's workforce, and activities that aren't "socially useful" may get the ax, such as "transactions that have no business purpose other than reducing taxes." (Nevertheless, Barclays "will continue...

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Want to Keep Your Bank Out of Trouble? Easy, Don't Lie

02/11/13

Most of the losses banks have caused and suffered could be greatly reduced or eliminated without relying on complex regulations and elaborate risk management. Just promulgate and enforce one simple rule: we tolerate no lying.

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A Dystopian Vision of Banking from the 'Mad Men' Era

02/08/13

Once you stop chuckling at the political incorrectness and retro-futurism of this 1959 speech, you sense the privacy dangers that lurk ahead for us in the present day.

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