Banks can ensure that their oversight teams help to propel the whole company forward by creating a thorough governance structure and hiring overseers with experience in key business lines.

Banc of California’s proposed acquisition of 20 Banco Popular branches offers an opportunity for regulators to ensure that underserved customers and communities are not left behind in bank deals, writes Paulina Gonzalez of the California Reinvestment Coalition.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Deutsche Bank's Troubles: The news of the New York Fed's stern rebuke to Deutsche Bank over its questionable financial data has industry observers making bets on the fallout. Deutsche Bank's chief financial officer, Stefan Krause, is now in the hot seat, according to the Wall Street Journal. Krause launched an effort to whip the bank's financial data into shape in 2010, but progress has been slow. Krause is far from the bank's…

Federal Reserve stress tests evaluate banks' ability to withstand severely adverse scenarios like the Great Recession. But the next downturn may pose different problems, according to Tony Hughes of Moody's Analytics.

You might think overhead expenses as a percentage of average assets decline as institutions get bigger. You'd be wrong.

Receiving Wide Coverage ... CIT Goes Big: CIT Group's plan to buy OneWest Bank for $3.4 billion is a big deal in more ways than one. Not only is it the industry's biggest purchase since 2012, CIT would become "the world's first intentionally created SIFI" with $67 billion in assets, as noted by the Journal's John Carney. Investors are cheering CIT chief John Thain's decision to leap over the $50 billion asset threshold because the deal…

People who lack easy and affordable access to traditional bank accounts can benefit from cryptocurrency services that allow them save on remittance fees, pay bills on time and stay liquid.

Lenders are working to meet affordable housing needs by extending mortgages to borrowers with a broader range of credit scores and offering loans with lower down payments. But there's still more work to be done, according to Fannie Mae's Jeffery Hayward and Anne McCulloch.

Breaking News This Morning ... CIT Buying OneWest for $3.4 Billion: "CIT Group Inc., the business lender led by Wall Street veteran John Thain, said Tuesday it had reached a deal to buy the parent company of OneWest Bank NA for $3.4 billion, a move Mr. Thain called 'transformational.' " Wall Street Journal, New York Times Receiving Wide Coverage ... …

Dodd-Frank encourages the pursuit of financial stability at the expense of economic growth. Congress can fix the problem by amending the law so that regulators are required to balance both goals, writes Paul H. Kupiec of the American Enterprise Institute.

Decisions about how to apply U.S. swaps trading rules abroad should be based less on fears of risk to the financial system and more on considerations of market integrity, according to attorney Timothy Karpoff.

Wall Street Journal New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman isn't alone in his concerns about Barclays' dark pool activities. Trading firms including RBC Capital Markets and T. Rowe Price Group worried in the months before Schneiderman sued Barclays that their orders were getting subpar treatment on the dark pool because of high-frequency traders. What's more, "a number of Barclays employees privately expressed concerns to top stock-trading executives that the firm was giving high-frequency traders too much…

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week.

Internal documents reveal that the crackdown is targeting banks, not merchants and processors, because it requires less investigation into the facts. That should anger all Americans who care about due process and the rule of law, writes ex-FDIC Chairman Bill Isaac.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Return to Stability: Gains in wealth management and investment banking helped Morgan Stanley nearly double its profit in the second quarter. The papers played up how the bank has focused on stable businesses while relying less on fixed income. The Wall Street Journal said Morgan Stanley has largely shrugged off" bond trading declines that have hurt other firms. The New York Times said the bank has proved skeptics wrong that it could…