'Government-Directed Lending Seldom Ends Well': Comments of the Week
March 21, 2014 9:35 AM
American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. As excerpted from the Comments sections of AmericanBanker.com articles.
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On Huntington Bancshares' (HBAN) plan to stop charging customers when it transfers money to cover overdrafts:
"What a sad commentary on the sorry state of the banking industry when the actions of a bank to stop punishing depositors with unnecessary fees is newsworthy."
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On the likely result of the government's expanded post-crisis role in the financial sector:
"Government-directed lending seldom seems to end well."
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On the likely result of the government's expanded post-crisis role in the financial sector:
"A serious discussion can't focus solely on increased regulation. Unmentioned are some of the deregulations that lead to excess."
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On the notion that the Department of Justice should stay out of bank regulation:
"The problem is that the regulators don't do criminal enforcement
I'd be fine with creating a single bank regulator if it insisted on jailing bankers as part of a program of enforcement."
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On the notion that there are too many bank regulators:
"We as an industry cannot simply say we need less regulation. We need to propose a specific plan and more importantly we need to recognize that we need both Republican and Democratic support to pass any changes."
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On the importance of a broad business strategy to a bank's ability to innovate:
"Banks with a strategy outperform those without a strategy. It didn't matter if it was the right strategy, the best strategy, or the optimal strategy; what mattered was that the banks had a plan and followed it."
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On why banks are failing to attract top tech talent:
"How will the high salaries needed to attract the tech talent play with the other employees? It's easy to say that your other employees just have to understand the market for tech talent but
many employees don't buy that."
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On why banks are failing to attract top tech talent:
"Given the state of technology and it's ubiquity in our day-to-day lives, banks should drop the 'IT as support' mentality. Technology is a core competency and something that provides real competitive advantage."
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On why banks are failing to attract top tech talent:
"Banks spent years and millions
outsourcing engineering jobs to the lowest bidder, which resulted in a lot of engineers who are out of date or unskilled. Top talent
[is] most attracted to workplaces with a lot of other 'A' players. No one wants to work on a team with other members that are barely competent."
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On why EMV chips are suddenly hot:
"The retail industry is using this issue as a foil to pass the buck on their member's deficient security systems that cause these massive breaches."
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On the notion that customers want to bank via multiple channels:
"What a revolutionary idea! Listen to our customers and try and give them what they want? If we're not careful we're going to be accused of being customer-centric."
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