BankThink

To Save Europe's Banks, Unload the Baggage

10/10/12

Public-private partnerships designed to dispose of banks' costly noncore assets allow governments to transform themselves into facilitators of a banking revival, banks to bolster their balance sheets and private investors to gain access to a pool of profitable assets providing attractive rates of return.

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FHFA's Vision for MBS Platform: Ambitious, Laudable, Dicey

10/09/12

FHFA is admirably trying to design a platform that will work under any future scenario for the mortgage market. But history shows large-scale projects can fall victim to sheer complexity.

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Deliver What Customers Want, Not What You Think They Need

10/09/12

Most customers want to spend less time on their finances, not more. They will flock where they are rewarded for transacting conveniently, rather than for counting their pennies through PFM.

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Walmart Goes from Green (Dot) to Amex Blue; Stressing Over Stress Tests

10/09/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Bluebird Alights: The Bluebird debit card Walmart rolled out Monday marks another phase in the retailing giant's aggressive push into financial services, the Journal reports. The Bluebird card doesn't have a monthly maintenance fee, annual fee or activation fee, whereas other prepaid cards carry fees of $5 or more a month, as well as a nest of other charges, notes the Journal, which adds that Bluebird arrives as checking account fees reach...

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3 Ways to Keep Your Bank's Reputation Intact

10/09/12

Financial institutions can avoid negative headlines by monitoring feedback via social media, continually educating staff on how to talk to customers and making reputation risk a major part of their enterprise risk management program.

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Does Concern for Risk Inhibit Innovation?

10/08/12

A LinkedIn discussion thread mulls a potential hazard of rigid risk management: Does an unyielding concern for risk impede financial institutions from coming up with creative solutions to traditional problems?

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Innovative Bill Payment Options Will Bank the Underserved

10/05/12

The universal consumer demand for bill payment makes the service particularly well-suited to bringing people into the financial mainstream.

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Loyalty to Jamie Dimon Is No Guarantee of Job Security at JPMorgan

10/05/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

JPMorgasbord: Barry Zubrow, JPMorgan Chase's head of regulatory affairs, is leaving his job before the end of the year, and may or may not stay with the bank in an advisory role, the Journal reports, citing anonymous sources. The article also reveals that Jes Staley, the chairman of JPM's corporate and investment banking unit, was a candidate to run Barclays after the Libor scandal forced the British bank's CEO to step down....

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Let's Establish Professional Standards for Bankers

10/05/12

To say one is a banker because he or she works at a bank is like saying you are a car because you live in a garage. The term banker must mean something.

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Want to Regain Customer Trust? Start with an Apology

10/04/12

Banks can't win back business through optimistic future-focused messaging that ignores the real pain in our country. What customers really want is for their bank to apologize for its missteps.

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