Andrew Kahr

The CFPB's mission is to protect consumers from financial harm.

A quick read of a recent New York Times story could suggest a tidal move back into subprime lending. But a closer look reveals a major exception: before the crisis, consumers with weak credit were warmly invited to borrow on unsecured bank credit cards. No more.

Though it caved to First Premier’s lawsuit, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has failed to resolve the uncertainty about the rules for credit card fees.

Why has there been continuing explosive growth in prepaid cards, primarily marketed by nonbanks and most profitably to people who are already bank customers?

The individual responsible for "enterprise growth" at American Express was recently quoted in this newspaper, saying about mobile that the "data is more valuable than the payment transaction." We're told this preference for data contradicts Amex "tradition." No, it contradicts Amex experience.

The 2009 Card Act required lenders to "consider" customers' "ability to pay" before granting credit on cards.

Crybaby bankers, when not engaged in weeping over new rules, focus on attacking "shadow banking," whether in the form of payday lending or money funds.

Many financial product innovations sound brilliant, but are prone to blow up after 5 or 15 years of increasing emulation and bloat, as discipline declines. Then, after the horses are long gone, Washington thinks about painting the barn. Some of that happened with inventive mortgages and their securitization, with collateral default swaps, with overinvestment in commercial real estate, and — some would allege — with money market funds.

Every now and then some doomsday cultist predicts the end of the world, but it doesn't occur. No big news.

"Confidence was so shattered that banks were holding vast unlent sums, and businesses did not want to invest in new capital even though interest rates were at abnormally low levels…The general loss in confidence was the main cause of the low demand, and thus the low level of employment."

There is an iconic photo from the 1930s showing Richard Whitney, the former president of the New York Stock Exchange, being led off towards jail in his elegant suit. (He had stolen from the NYSE pension fund.) Sending him to jail didn't alleviate the Depression, but I suppose it gave many people a nice, warm feeling.

There is no such thing as a "Consumer Financial Protection Bureau." That’s a false label. Rather, there is a Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection ("BCFP," if you like), established by Title X of the "Dodd-Frank Act."

After Brian Moynihan became CEO at the start of 2010, B of A's stock lost more than half its value. Meanwhile, the leading bank stock index, KBW, scarcely went down at all. And B of A was recently selling for about 1/3 of book, a remarkably low valuation. Evidently enormous further losses are expected. Why?

Under a recently-enacted law, Obama is to reduce Iranian oil revenue by punishing banks or other parties that make payments to Iran's central bank. Thus, the interbank payment system becomes a tool of American foreign policy.

"Rich" Cordray (as his sidekick Raj Date calls him) is being unfairly stigmatized by press references to him as "5-time Jeopardy winner." As if that were his greatest qualification!

Bank of America is a huge and therefore convenient target for journalists to bash. Recently the Los Angeles Times assailed B of A for cutting "some" small business credit lines. (Maybe they cut "some" but increased more of them!)

Mortgage securitization blew up the home price bubble and detonated the financial crisis. How?

Has the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, with over 500 employees and growing like cancer, actually protected any consumers yet? Well, next best thing. It garners headlines nearly daily in lobbying to gain full powers by getting Cordray confirmed. Dodd-Frank says the CFPB must have a confirmed director to fire from all barrels.

First Premier Bank has for decades offered credit cards with higher rates and fees than almost any other bank. For instance, if you borrowed $250 on one of their cards and held that balance for a year, you'd pay roughly 75% of that amount, $187.50, in finance charges and fees—assuming no late payment or other charges.

Lots of bankers have lost their focus on customers, lending and costs. Instead they tune in on distractions, such as politics and regulatory policy. I don't think that's good, but let's use it to shape a strategy that gets results.