In seeking to prevent future financial contagion, the U.S. may have gone too far in regulating the mortgage industry, cutting millions of potential buyers out of the real estate market.
To avoid incurring a customer's wrath or a lawsuit, banks should make sure new fees carry a clear value exchange, offer something new (ahem, mobile) and are easily avoided. Resist any temptation to set fee traps.
At some point, the CFPB may start asking if issuers' credit scoring models negatively affect minority credit card applicants more than white applicants.
Banks that best leverage customer loyalty are accelerating the digital transformation, catering to select demographics and actively selling products to new and existing customers.
Big, flashy rewards are often too broad, too niche, or too complicated for consumers. Banks should follow Capital One's lead and switch to more straightforward (and sustainable) rewards programs.
Increasingly, our markets will be defined less by where we place branches and more by where we send our best bankers to engage with existing and potential customers.
Banks should allow more time for less-stringent pricing models and video-teller ATMs to permeate the industry as consumers wean themselves from conventional, face-to-face interaction with tellers.
No market should over-rely on one entity. But references in regulations and lending guidelines to the dominant credit score provider have created unintentional government brand endorsement and blocked new entrants.
