BankThink

Regulators to JPM: Don't Ever Let Us Catch You Doing That Again

01/15/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

JPM's Parking Tickets: The Fed and OCC hit JPMorgan Chase with enforcement actions related to last year's $6 billion trading loss and inadequate anti-money laundering controls. The orders include no monetary fines or admission of wrongdoing, just remediation steps (wryly summed up by the FT's Alphaville blog: "Look into my eyes: you will implement the Action Plan.") Then again, as one journalist tweeted while the news was disseminating Monday afternoon, "in all...

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What I Learned from a South African Banker

01/15/13

The Basel III liquidity plan is the latest case of a global rule hostile to local realities.

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The Bank that Lent Money to an Architect Building Houses of Cards

01/14/13

Expertise alone is insufficient without experience, and its byproduct: a "gut" feeling that enables a lender to separate the good credit applicant from the bad, the legitimate from the "con".

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Debt Ceiling Update; Chinese Investments Disappoint; Big Banks' Leverage Ratios Remain a Mystery

01/14/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Debt Ceiling Update: A Journal article this morning looks at Treasury's options for paying the nation's bills should Congress refuse to raise the $16.4 trillion federal borrowing limit. These option include "selling assets such as gold or mortgage-backed securities ... cutting all spending by 40% ... delaying trillions of dollars of payments to employees, Social Security recipients, contractors and others" or paying the government's bills only as tax revenue become available. The...

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Bankers Can't Sell Insurance, But They Can Sell Protection

01/14/13

History shows banks can't compete with agents selling consumers insurance. But credit protection products have been highly profitable for the banks, and can remain so - provided the products are reformed.

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Only Surprise in Chase CRA Downgrade - What Took So Long?

01/11/13

By downgrading the CRA rating of JPMorgan Chase, the OCC demonstrated it is capable of holding a major bank accountable for a deplorable record of serving the credit needs of low- and moderate-income communities.

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QM Cements the Sorry State of Mortgages for Years to Come

01/11/13

The CFPB's final rule exacerbates our dependence on the GSEs and FHA, potentially harms a large swath of potential borrowers and severely handicaps the market's ability to effectively serve customers.

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Amex's Ax, Qualified Mortgage Misery, the Fed's Fuzzy Crystal Ball

01/11/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Amex Swings the Ax: The tectonic shifts that are reshaping finance struck American Express (AXP) late Thursday when it released its fourth quarter earnings ahead of schedule, along with the bombshell that it's planning to eliminate 5,400 jobs, or 8.5% of its staff. The Wall Street Journal describes the job cuts as Amex's biggest retrenchment in a decade. Most of the reductions will involve the New York-based company's (sorry, Mayor Bloomberg) travel...

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Shorter-Term Mortgages Can Help Rekindle Homebuying - Responsibly

01/11/13

There must be a concerted effort to open the way to successful homeownership to more Americans. This should include encouraging shorter-term mortgages so low down payment borrowers build equity faster.

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Mobile Devices Can Help Bank the Underbanked

01/10/13

More than two billion people worldwide do not have a bank account, but do have a mobile phone, making the device a direct conduit to an underserved demographic.

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