The Dimon Senate hearing was a missed opportunity to spotlight the criticality of risk management practices. When banks get into trouble, you can follow the trail back to a lack of governance, process and controls.
Many so-called consumer advocates doubt consumers can make responsible decisions about credit and believe they should be "protected" from certain financial products. We did not sense this sort of patronizing viewpoint from the new agency.
Financial institutions and technology companies are working hard to bring location-based advertising to life, but research in psychology suggests those same offers may be draining a limited resource: our willpower.
It's too easy to blame the agency. With a job as complex as the FAA's, but less than a tenth of the staff, the OCC for practical and philosophical reasons relies on banks to manage and monitor risk.
The Basel III capital requirements must be applied consistently across borders. It'll do a lot more to deter reckless risk-taking than micromanaging banks through measures like the Volcker Rule.
"I wouldn't want to be buying a foreclosure, then have the title examiner find that a robo-signer had participated in the process," says Massachusetts' register of deeds.
Banks and governments have not been required to account for the way in which, when important firms fall deeper into distress, implicit and explicit taxpayer guarantees absorb much of the markdowns that would otherwise have to occur.
If one or more countries exit the euro, operations and technology departments of global investment managers will be faced with fundamental changes to core processing systems.
