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Student loans
Slideshow

'These foolish ideas': Comments of the week

By Rachel Witkowski
September 19, 2019 9:30 PM

Readers react to plans by Democratic presidential candidates to reform college tuition, credit unions buying more banks, whether the next president could fire the CFPB head and more.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., listens during a health care bill news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington.
On student lenders dismissing plans by Democratic presidential hopefuls Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders to overhaul how Americans pay for college:

"That these foolish ideas are voiced by their proponents with straight faces is incredible . . . What we really need to be focused on is reversing the fast-declining quality and value of our educational system."

Related: What student lenders think about Warren, Sanders reform plans
Boxing gloves. Read to rumble.
Stock image of person wearing business suit and boxing gloves
On bank trade groups ramping up their fight against credit unions buying banks:

"There is not faux outrage from the industry. Bankers are bothered by CUs purchasing banks, and taxpayers should be too.”

Related: Bankers fight back against credit union takeovers
Chess board showing king surrounded by pawns.
Pawns surrounding king, a social upheaval concept
Another reader responds to the banking trades' outcry over more credit unions buying banks:

"If bankers were so concerned about lower income tax receipts, you’d think they would have objected to the 2017 corporate income tax cuts."

Related: Bankers fight back against credit union takeovers
CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger
Kathy Kraninger, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) nominee for U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks during a Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, July 19, 2018. Kraninger, a little-known official who has worked for the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) since March 2017, is poised to succeed her boss Mick Mulvaney as director of the CFPB. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
On whether a Democratic victor in the presidential race could have legal authority to fire CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger:

"Yes, Democrats would absolutely fire Kathy Kraninger. Her stated vision of the CFPB is that of education first, enforcement second. But Elizabeth Warren and other prominent Democrats not named Joe Biden are far more trigger happy about enforcement and will not tolerate a dissenting voice."

Related: Would a Democratic president fire CFPB's Kraninger?
Millennials at work
Top view of mixed race group of people standing near the table. Young business team working on start-up project together, talking about new ideas. Creative meeting, sum up of teamwork.
On whether banks are missing out by not offering services that specifically attract millennials:

"I can attest to much different behaviors by millennials that bank with community banks. So perhaps it is just Wall Street that is missing the mark with millennials.”

Related: Banks are missing their millennial opportunity
debt-collection1.jpeg
On New York’s banking and insurance regulator objecting to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s debt collection proposal for not having enough teeth:

"The digital age has connected us to our phones and now leaves an open door for over-communication. It is one thing to overwhelm a potential member or consumer and another to collect past due bills and debts — both should have strict limits."

Related: N.Y. regulator voices objections to CFPB's debt collection plan
Accounting CECL
Stock market or forex trading graph and candlestick chart suitable for financial investment concept. Economy trends background for business idea and all art work design. Abstract finance background.
On a Financial Accounting Standards Board member claiming investors have lost confidence in the current accounting rules for loan losses, prompting a need for the new current expected credit loss model, or CECL:

"Methods that attempt to measure future losses, thereby creating 'additional provision' or 'recovery of provision,' are subjective distortions that are generally ignored by the most savvy investors. CECL will create an even larger distortion than the current method."

Related: Investors want new accounting standards, FASB says. Investors disagree.
zeisel-steven-cba.png
On the recent passing of Steven Zeisel, who was general counsel at the Consumer Bankers Association and longtime advocate for the financial services industry:

"Steve Zeisel is a very good model of effective and good bank advocacy, including always pleasant to be around. We hope that others will step up into that complete model.”

Related: Longtime CBA counsel had the backs of banks, the respect of regulators
Rachel Witkowski
Tech reporter, Financial Planning
Student loans Student loan debt Credit unions M&A Debt collection CECL Bernie Sanders Elizabeth Warren Kathy Kraninger CFPB FASB
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