BankThink

Elizabeth Warren's Warped Reality

09/12/12

The mother of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau spent much of her recent prime-time performance accusing banks of dishonesty. Perhaps she should take a gander in the mirror.

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Fraudsters Don't Worry About Privacy, Why Should We?

09/12/12

With consumer mobile access for banking channels and services growing, loosening privacy data rules may be the edge needed to combat fraud.

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How to Make Over $4,600 an Hour While in Prison and Other Lessons from the IRS' $104 Million Whistleblower Payout

09/12/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

A Golden Age for Whistleblowers?: The Internal Revenue Service has awarded Bradley Birkenfeld, a convicted former banker, $104 million for the role he played in exposing the aid Swiss bank UBS provided to wealthy clients in a decades-long effort to help them evade paying taxes. According to the Journal, details provided by Birkenfeld ultimately led UBS "to turn over the names of more than 4,000 account holders who were U.S. taxpayers and...

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When a Financial Invention May Not Be Patentable

09/12/12

While holding that Congress intended patent-eligible subject matter to "include anything under the sun that is made by man," the Supreme Court has consistently identified three exceptions: laws of nature, physical phenomena and abstract ideas. That last exception has proven most problematic for financial inventions.

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There's a Less Costly Way to Resolve Failing Banks

09/11/12

The FDIC can invest in the equity of teetering but salvageable banks. This would save money for the taxpayers, preserve banks that are worth preserving - and send a clear message about the future of community banking.

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AIG Has Everyone Wondering if Government Bailouts Are Actually Effective, Barclays Works on 'Projects'

09/11/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Wait a Minute … Do Bailouts Work?: That seems to be the question following the Treasury Department's now official sale of a massive chunk of AIG stock it purchased at the height of the financial crisis. According to the Journal, the Treasury sold shares to the public at $32.50 apiece, netting $18 billion, and bringing the federal government's return on its original $182.3 billion investment in the insurance firm to a combined...

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Dodd-Frank Provisions Cause Whistle-Blower Dilemma

09/11/12

The courts' indecision as to whether whistle-blowers who report wrongdoing internally are protected by Dodd-Frank sends one clear message: Come forward at your own risk.

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How to Make the Most of Antifraud Incentives in Debit

09/10/12

Starting Oct. 1, issuers with effective fraud reduction strategies will be eligible to make more money off debit card transactions. To reap the benefits of the Fed's new rule, banks will need to work together.

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Enforce Regulations-Not Regulators' Whims

09/10/12

Increasingly burdensome requirements, such as small business panels and cost-benefit analysis, inhibit writing of new regulations. But substituting enforcement actions that unevenly apply vague or unwritten rules betrays the regulatory mandate.

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Rejoice Taxpayers, the Government is Selling Most (But Not All) of its Stock in AIG

09/10/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

AIG Stock for Sale: The Treasury Department announced on Sunday that it is getting ready to sell $18 billion of the stock it purchased in American International Group during the controversial 2008 bailout of the insurance firm. The sale is expected to reduce the federal government — or, as the FT notes, "the U.S. taxpayer" — to a minority shareholder in the company for the first time since the financial crisis. According...

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