BankThink

If Neil Barofsky Can't Do It, Then Who Can?

08/29/12

The political game in Washington might not be one former SIGTARP Neil Barofsky was willing to play, but it suits Wall Street lobbyists perfectly. What are we, citizens and taxpayers, supposed to do now?

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Bain Capital Partners and PwC: A Rich and Varied Relationship

08/28/12

Bain Capital's relationship with auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers, though not necessarily inappropriate, is still too casual and in need of more monitoring.

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Payment Issuers Need to Concentrate on the Consumer

08/28/12

Issuers should develop strategies to make their account the primary one in a consumer's existing wallet and on new payment tools offered by companies like PayPal or Square.

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Is M&T's $3.7B Bid the Best Hudson City Could Get? We'll See

08/28/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ... The M&T-Hudson City Deal: It's the biggest bank merger announced this year, and one of the biggest since the dark days of 2008 (either No. 7 or No. 11, depending on whether you rely on the Journal or the FT, respectively). M&T, based in Buffalo, will pay $3.7 billion in stock for the struggling Hudson City in Paramus, N.J. ... And it still feels kind of weird to describe Hudson City as...

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Shrinking Banks Will Drag Down the Economy

08/27/12

The regulatory risk from Basel III, Dodd-Frank and other pressures will keep banks from growing, and the economy can't grow, if banks don't.

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Bankers, Offer Consumers Your Best Deal - No Matter What

08/27/12

Offer each retail customer the best terms for which he qualifies - and not just for mortgages. Don't count on a second chance to bargain or risk the legal and reputational consequences of offering less than your best.

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UniCredit Faces U.S. Probe, Romney May (or May Not) Have Issue with the Size of Big Banks

08/27/12

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Et tu, UniCredit?: You can add UniCredit to the growing list of banks under scrutiny for possible sanctions violations. The Journal reports the Italian bank is being investigated by the New York County District Attorney's Office, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the U.S. Department of Justice concerning dealings its German unit HypoVereinsbank had with heavily sanctioned Iran. Few details regarding the probe have yet to become...

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How Community Banks Can Survive in a Consolidated Market

08/27/12

Community banks should exploit their advantages based on convenience, personal service, local decision making and a relationship model reliant on deep customer knowledge.

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Lightning Fast, Dirt Cheap: Bitcoin Shows What Banking Could Be

08/24/12

Bitcoin lets users send money nearly instantaneously, at almost no cost, and (if desired) anonymously. Getting funds in and out of the system is the hard part. That may soon change.

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Fannie and Freddie Should Not Be Resurrected

08/24/12

Politicians, regulators and lenders still have much to learn from a period dominated by the "affordable housing" ideology.

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