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

Two Republican legislators have suggested that affordable housing funding should be put on hold until Congress finally decides what to do about Fannie and Freddie. But why give Congress another six years to fiddle around with housing finance while the poor and homeless face a declining level of government housing assistance?

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Deutsche Downer: Deutsche Bank's quarterly results beat analysts' expectations, but the bar was pretty low to begin with given that analysts had forecast a loss. "A single quarter aside, the performance of the stock and of the company has simply been poor," writes the Financial Times' Lex team. The column recommends Deutsche consider spinning off "some or all" of its retail banking units and consider boosting returns by growing its asset management…

If financial firms are serious about incorporating gender and ethnic diversity into their leadership teams, they need to encourage women to apply for promotions and implement more flexible work schedules.

The Basel Committee's revisions to banks' risk disclosure requirements should help investors glean more meaningful information, thereby allowing them to impose market discipline on less creditworthy institutions.

Receiving Wide Coverage ... A Patient Fed: When analyzing the Federal Reserve's statements about its timeline for raising short-term interest rates, it helps to have practiced close reading in college. The Fed said Wednesday it plans to be "patient" in adjusting monetary policy, which "means the central bank isn't likely to raise rates at its next two policy meetings," the Wall Street Journal reports. In other words, a rate hike wouldn't come until June at the…

The federal courts have instated a $25 fee for transferring corporate bankruptcy claims. The decision was met with little fanfare — but it could pave the way to a financial transactions tax.

Critics of online alternative lenders argue that their underwriting models are unproven and that a financial crisis could bring the whole industry crashing down. But while Lending Club and other startups may be relatively new to the scene, they're no greenhorns.

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Gold Rush: Three armed robbers stole historic gold nuggets from Wells Fargo's corporate museum in San Francisco on Tuesday. The masked suspects crashed their sports-utility vehicle into the entrance of the museum and broke into the display case while holding a security guard at gunpoint, according to reports. At an estimated value of $10,000, the nuggets are hardly a staggering haul, but the New York Times notes they have sentimental value: "the…

A spate of recent account closings at churches and charities suggests that Operation Choke Point and other de-risking directives are causing collateral damage to faith-based organizations.

The traditional method of measuring mortgage denials is fundamentally flawed. Evaluating not just the quantity but also the quality of mortgage applicants can give a clearer picture of actual denial rates.

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Pushback Against ECB Rules: Last week's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, gave European bankers unhappy with stricter capital rules a chance to air their grievances. The Financial Times reports bankers in Davos argued that tough capital requirements will render the European Central Bank's quantitative easing less effective. They say the initiatives work at cross-purposes: QE is meant to encourage investors to take on riskier assets that invigorate the economy, while the…

The Fed appears to have looked at Bitcoin as a means for real-time payments in the banking system but shelved the concept for now.

A plan to tax the liabilities of systemically important banks could help curb risk to the financial system, but the president and Congress should first consider more realistic asset thresholds.

Wall Street Journal

Retailers large and small, not to mention the head of strategic partnerships at Visa, told the Journal that many more customers are using Apple Pay than other mobile-wallet services, such as Softcard, the mobile-wallet services formerly known as Isis that's backed by AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. The reasons: Apple's consumer gadgets are popular; banks and credit unions have been aggressively marketing the services; and consumers' cybersecurity concerns after breaches at Home Depot and…