A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including the downside of public banking and the vulnerabilities unaddressed by global regulators' bail-in plan for megabanks.

A new service from Cardtronics asks consumers to pay up to $10 a month for unlimited access to 5,000 of the company's ATMs. That may not sound like a great deal — but it could have a lot of appeal among people who make use of alternative financial services.

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Taking Stock of the Stress Tests: All 31 banks subject to the Federal Reserve's stress tests had enough capital to survive the central bank's crisis scenario, but many in the media say this may not be the most reliable indicator of how banks would manage in a real recession. The problem is it's hard to predict what a crisis will actually look like, Stanford finance and economics professor Anat Admati tells the…

The subprime consumer lending business is booming. But lenders that think they have the risk-based pricing model figured out may be in for a rude awakening.

When the government owns banks, lending decisions tend to be driven by politics rather than economics. Resources flow to those with influence and banks under-price risk in order to appeal to voters. That's bad news for everyone.

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Blast from the Fed's Past: Newly released transcripts from the Federal Reserve's 2009 policy meetings offer fresh insight in the mindsets of central bank officials during the rocky aftermath of the financial crisis. The New York Times' Neil Irwin condemns the Fed for worrying so much about the consequences of their actions that they hesitated to adopt stronger measures at the time. "By 2009 virtually the entire committee had a clear understanding…

A recent CFPB enforcement action shows that lenders must not only avoid misleading statements, but anything in connection with their advertising that may have the likelihood of significantly confusing consumers.

The Financial Stability Board’s proposed capital and long-term debt requirements would only go part of the way toward ending the risk of government bailouts. If regulators really want to get rid of too big to fail, they need to deal with over-the-counter derivatives market.

Wall Street Journal Is this the first wave of backlash to Apple Pay? Or was it simply to be expected that it was only a matter of time before hackers cracked the Apple Pay code? Either way, some banks say they've seen an increasing amount of fraud on Apple Pay devices. The weakness in the system is apparently related to the verification process associated with a user adding a credit card to the service, unnamed sources…

Trade-based money laundering happens outside the financial system. But it can still create major issues for banks because criminals typically deposit their profits in bank accounts.

Banks have to invest in mobile technology in order to keep up with millennials. But bankers also need opportunities to rub shoulders with young customers — and small, conveniently situated branches give them an opportunity to do so.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Nothing But Stress: Foreign banks are stressed about the stress tests. Deutsche Bank and Santander are both expected to be called out by the Federal Reserve on Thursday, when the stress test results are announced, for lapses in risk management. Capital isn't the issue with foreign banks. Instead, it's how they measure and predict risks and losses. DB, Santander, Barclays, Credit Suisse, HSBC and UBS are "now spending heavily and recruiting project…

Lawmakers reluctant to offer community banks regulatory relief should consider the empirical evidence of how Dodd-Frank has hurt small lenders — and listen to the federal and state bank regulators calling for changes.

An overlooked issue in the plan to reform Federal Home Loan bank membership could inadvertently jeopardize the local focus of the system by allowing insurance companies to apply for membership in any of the 12 districts.

Wall Street Journal The Dodd-Frank restriction on the Federal Reserve's authority to be a lender of last resort poses a threat to financial stability, Glenn Hubbard, former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush, and Hal Scott, a Harvard Law School professor, write in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal. Restrictions on federal guarantees for bank deposits and money market funds also contribute to the threat. The Fed's lender-of-last-resort authority…