BankThink

The FSOC: Systemic Oversight or Overlook?

10/02/12

Intended to bring together the entire universe of U.S. financial regulators in the hope that doing so would identify and forestall new risks to the financial system, the FSOC, two years in, has not identified much and can therefore be credited with little forestalling.

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Schneiderman's Loaded for Bear; CFPB's Surprising Target

10/02/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ... A Bear of a Case: In the first action by his task force on mortgage securitization fraud, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued JPMorgan over bonds that Bear Stearns sold before JPM acquired it. Naturally, the complaint quotes from embarrassing, obscenity-laced emails, and one Bear Stearns trader allegedly coined a phrase that would make Henry Blodget blush (the Huffington Post saw fit to put this innovation of profanity in its headline)....

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Why Prudent Reserving Resonates with Bankers

10/02/12

The notion of decreasing the degree to which a banker can use his or her judgment to add to the ALLL not only throws the baby out with the bathwater, but it also fails to protect the investor, the very person that the accounting rules claim to be protecting.

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What Mortgage Settlement Lacks in Substance, It Makes Up in Execution

10/01/12

A practical, well-executed plan, even one with disappointingly modest goals, will deliver more than an overly ambitious plan, easily subverted, that in hindsight probably had no hope of ever succeeding.

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NCUA Rules Protect Credit Union Members from Misinformation

10/01/12

It is neither the intent nor the practice of NCUA to influence a vote on a credit union conversion. Our rules protect members' rights to make well informed decisions.

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The Brits Show How Mutual Banks Can Survive Under Basel III

10/01/12

Under new international rules, mutual banks in the U.S. will need a way to issue marketable securities to raise capital. Core capital deferred shares, a U.K. innovation, offer a model.

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Money Market Funds Will Be First Major Foe Superregulator Faces; CFTC Rule Gets Vacated

10/01/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Battle over Money Market Funds Intensifies: A recent push by regulators to reform money market funds has become about much more than revamping a risky industry. According to the Journal, the showdown is "turning into a major test of a key change to the U.S. financial architecture after the most severe financial crisis in half a century" since the establishing new rules regarding the funds has now fallen to the Financial Stability...

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Fraud by Rogue Traders Is Absurdly Easy to Stamp Out

10/01/12

Trader fraud occurs only because we do not require immediate trade confirmation posted infallibly to the institution's books. Instead, the trader is allowed to wave a magic wand to create false transactions or hide real ones.

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10 Things to Know About Tarp Transactions

09/28/12

There will be some complex decisions for those involved in Tarp situations, particularly with regard to banks that are likely to fail if they are not acquired or recapitalized. Here's what to consider before you make them.

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Wheatley Orders Major Libor Makeover, Goldman Settles Pay-to-Play Charges, Being Ben Bernanke

09/28/12

Breaking News This Morning ... $2.4B to Make It Go Away: Bank of America agreed to pay $2.43 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by investors who claimed, among other things, that the bank misled them about the health of Merrill Lynch, which B of A was in the process of buying. B of A denies the allegations, but said it just wanted to put the dispute to rest. "Resolving this litigation removes uncertainty and...

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