BankThink

Why It's Tough for Bankers to Innovate: They're Left-Brained

10/29/12

Learning to tap into the more creative right hemisphere of my brain enabled me to think in a unique manner about both the problems and opportunities facing my bank.

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Hurricane Sandy Shuts Down N.Y., D.C.; UBS Firing 10,000

10/29/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ... A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall: U.S. stock markets are closed today as Hurricane Sandy approaches the Northeast. The financial district in lower Manhattan (including American Banker's office) has been evacuated, the transit system has been shut down and flights are being canceled. Federal offices and the Metro in D.C. are also closed. So if you're in California and someone in New York or Washington doesn't return your call today, don't take it...

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Basel III Liquidity Rules May Kill Short-Term Deposit Market

10/29/12

If U.S. regulators proceed with anything like the 2010 Basel III proposal on liquidity, important bank products such as brokered deposits may simply disappear.

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How to Get the Most Out of Your Bank's Digital Platform

10/26/12

With limited resources to invest in new technologies, banks need to place small bets on a portfolio of promising options, team up with innovation partners and exceed customer expectations.

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Use Tech to Boost, Not Bypass Customer Relationships

10/26/12

It is one thing to see an irrelevant ad on a billboard in Las Vegas, but it's quite another to get an irrelevant message from an institution who knows more about me than many of my relatives.

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How to Loosen the 'Qualified Mortgage' Straitjacket

10/26/12

The Dodd-Frank QM rule will restrict the availability of credit, but it can be less invasive if the CFPB develops a model that weighs all relevant risk factors, not just a few measures of capacity to repay.

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Libor Probe Widens; When Acquisitions Turn Rotten; Pandit Was Pushed

10/26/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Libor Probe Widens: You can add nine more big banks to the already too-long list of financial institutions being investigated for alleged attempts to rig the London interbank offered rate. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (we're sure that name sounds familiar) and Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen have issued subpoenas to Societe Generale, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of America, Credit Suisse, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd., Norinchukin Bank, Rabobank,...

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Close Loophole to Slow Debit Card Class Actions

10/25/12

The Uniform Law Commission's commercial code excludes debit cards, which is problematic since courts tend to reject class-action challenges that conflict with it.

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Bad Banking Practices Drive Nonbank Use

10/25/12

Critics of nonbanks contend that consumers use "high-cost" alternatives because they are financially illiterate. But, like most simplistic conclusions, this one is seldom accompanied by facts and is as wrong as it is demeaning of the innate intelligence of these consumers.

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B of A Has Countrywide Problems; QE3 Continues; Barclays Board May Be Overhauled

10/25/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

A Countrywide Haunting: Bank of America found itself on the receiving end of a $1 billion mortgage lawsuit filed by the federal government on Wednesday. Federal prosecutors are accusing the bank of carrying out a scheme ("called the 'Hustle' and 'High Speed Swim Lane'") started by its Countrywide unit that defrauded government-backed mortgage agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac "by churning out loans at a rapid pace without proper controls." B of...

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