BankThink

Bank Customers I'll Never Forget

01/25/13

"Madam," the manager told her, "now you will close your account and get out."

[more]

Mixed Reviews for New SEC Nominee; Morgan Stanley CEO Takes a Pay Cut; A Big Win for Goldman

01/25/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

The Enforcers: Reaction to President Obama's nomination of former prosecutor Mary Jo White as the new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission is a bit of a mixed bag. While headlines acknowledge the pick sends a message to Wall Street — as White is a former top prosecutor and defense lawyer with an impressive (and aggressive) record — their accompanying stories also point out she lacks knowledge of Wall Street arcana....

[more]

How to Stymie Mortgage Lending: QM Rule Edition

01/25/13

What the mortgage industry wanted was a clear-cut rule from the CFPB. What it received was 800-plus pages of confusion.

[more]

Guns, Drugs, and Banks: None Can Be Controlled

01/24/13

Why do we instinctively cower to power after financial crises and human tragedies? And what can be done about it?

[more]

We Need a Politician Like Carter Glass

01/24/13

The lawmaker behind the Federal Reserve and Glass-Steagall Acts understood that unless legislation imposes specific rules, including clear limits on financial institutions' activities, we are bound to have lax regulation, excessive speculation, and crises.

[more]

Job Cuts, Job Cuts and More Job Cuts; Is Lanny Breuer Leaving DOJ?

01/24/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Cuts, Cuts … and More Cuts: Banks continue to downsize staff. According to three separate reports from the Financial Times, Commerzbank plans to cut between 4,000 and 6,000 jobs through 2016 in order to turn around its underperforming domestic retail business; UniCredit plans to cut 1,000 jobs at its German unit HvB by 2014 for similar reasons and Lloyds Banking Group is adding another 940 positions to previously announced job cuts set...

[more]

We're a Long Way from Bedford Falls Banking

01/24/13

A recent BankThink post bemoans the one-size-fits-all application of Basel III. But the reason capital rules have become so sweeping is because banks have become bigger, more complex and more connected to the global economy.

[more]

QM Rule Shows Why the CFPB Should Be Abolished

01/23/13

Political denial and cover-up are in the CFPB's DNA. The agency was predestined to be overbearing, which will only hurt borrowers in the long run.

[more]

End 'Too Big to Fail' by Making It Shareholders' Problem

01/23/13

Require megabanks to pay their stealth subsidies into a reserve available only to creditors and the FDIC. Market discipline will do the rest, as shareholders demand that the banks shrink.

[more]

How the Qualified Mortgage Rule Harms Rural Borrowers

01/23/13

It seems clear that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau believes balloon mortgages are not abusive or predatory. Why, then, does the rule so restrict their use?

[more]