BankThink

The Sniper's main contribution seems to be shooting down others' ideas. The Historian defends the status quo to the end and the Jetson is convinced the bank's existence rides on the latest technology craze. All of these mind-sets are shortsighted.

Senate Confirms Yellen as Fed Chair; More Co-op Bank Probes

Banking is increasingly a data-driven business. By creating a shared data and analytics utility, community banks could glean valuable insights on their business currently available only to large institutions.

The Federal Reserve should allow market participants to make their own bets on what the central bank will do and when it will do it.

The United States is the most successful political, economic, and financial enterprise the globe has ever seen. It has this position because it has always embraced risk.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...JPM Madoff Settlement: New year; same story for JPMorgan Chase. Anonymice are telling their favorite news outlets the big bank is close to nearing another settlement with federal regulators. This one involves allegations that JPM ignored signs about Bernie Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme. The settlement is expected to include just over $2 billion in fines, paid out to victims of the Madoff fraud, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. It will also include a deferred prosecution agreement with Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. "The agreement, nearly unheard-of for a giant American bank and typically employed only when misconduct is extreme, underscores the magnitude of the case against JPMorgan," notes Dealbook. The Journal says JPM is trying to get the settlement finalized before it reports earnings on January 14.

Credit Union Journal publisher Frank J. Diekmann has a New Year's Resolution for America's credit unions: Take your own advice. It could be the single-biggest difference-maker in decades.

CUNA president and CEO Bill Cheney says that, despite Washington's ineffective reputation, he hopes his organization's efforts can make 2014 a year of quality improvements for credit unions and their 98 million members.

How can those charged with making business decisions for their cooperatives keep up with the swiftly-changing needs of their members? Simple — they ditch the gut, dig into the data.

Another Side of the Bitcoin Debate: Pamela J. Martinson and Christopher P. Masterson of Sidley Austin LLP took on one of 2013's hottest topics – Bitcoin – by warning there were hazards in lending to the cryptocurrency's users. "Owned Bitcoin has the potential to be collateral for loans, but creditors are likely more concerned with restricting Bitcoin acquisition or use by borrowers due to the uncertain regulatory landscape, irreversible nature of payments, extreme volatility of value and anonymity of the system," they wrote. One reader felt a borrower's use of Bitcoin wasn't always relevant. "If the debtor uses another asset, like a traditional bank account, and does not offer the bitcoin as collateral, what business is it of the bank whether that person or company owns or handles bitcoin?" he wrote. Another commenter thought the authors were selling the cryptocurrency short. "Bitcoin technology introduces some very new novel ways to use bitcoins in collateral and escrow transactions that simply have no parallel in today's banking system," the reader argued. "In a nutshell, because the authority to transfer Bitcoin is established through mathematics rather than institutions, it is possible to create elaborate mathematical equations … where control of the Bitcoins is spread across multiple parties." (Indeed, the economics and technology writer Eli Dourado has described "m of n" multi-signature transactions, in which bitcoins cannot be released from an account without the consent of at least one party plus an arbitrator.) Martinson and Masterson described loan agreements with covenants or reps and warranties that restrict borrowers' use of Bitcoin, and a commenter on Reddit smelled foul play, grumbling, "Here's another way in which banks are trying to squelch Bitcoin." But another Redditor had a more prosaic take: "Banks are so stupid, they can't change their paradigms so they are completely missing the boat."