Visa and MasterCard got a senatorial rap on the knuckles over plans to use customers' credit card transaction data to target online ads. Might there be a fair way of doing this that is a win-win for all stakeholders?
How can banks can move to a technology-based model while still supporting a higher-cost branch model to serve the remaining traditionalists? There's not an easy answer.
This isn't about Bank of America covering its costs. It's about hanging on to the excessive fees the bank got used to charging retailers. Only now it's the consumer's turn to get gouged.
Face the fact that fewer customers are going to pay to support branch costs when they can do more of their transactions more conveniently in other ways. We're way past the tipping point.
One need only think back to the AIG experience to feel nervous about MetLife's intention to deregister as a bank holding company and join the ranks of the "shadow" financial sector.
