Branch office deposit data is among the most confidential information at a bank, especially those with many branches. Why have regulators made this sensitive competitive data public for banks and thrifts annually for over 50 years but not for credit unions?

Any approval of the proposed Capital One-Discover merger must come with a pro-competitive 1% interchange fee condition to benefit consumers and small businesses and challenge the dominating duopolist Visa, and a pro-community 5% deposit reinvestment condition.

"Don't fight the Fed" is the mantra of investors. But, when the Fed does not allow banks to meet the needs of their communities and shareholders through unfair regulations, like the politically motivated CRA final rule, bankers have no choice but to go to court to seek regulatory justice.

The nation's largest credit union allegedly engaged in racial discrimination resulting in calls for further investigations and regulations. Had Navy Federal been subject to the Community Reinvestment Act it may have avoided this problem.

Banks need to mount an aggressive legal response to the onslaught of intrusive new rules being promulgated by their prudential regulators.

Internet-based banks are siphoning deposits away from urban centers in the U.S. and, unlike brick-and-mortar banks, face no requirement that they loan money back into those communities.

Unfair regulations must be challenged, and bankers are increasingly turning to lawsuits to do so, writes Ken Thomas, president of Community Development Fund Advisors.

Banking crises always recur. But time and again, bankers have been shown to operate on the assumption that good times are permanent.

Regulators had their priorities backward when it came to overseeing SVB and allowed an obvious danger to go unmitigated.

Banks need to be cautious about negotiating pre-merger Community Benefit Agreements with nationwide activist groups. The deals carry real reputational hazard.