BankThink

Nacha says the industry wants faster processing and is “working to make it happen in a way that is a win-win for all.” The biggest banks are in no rush.

As consumer groups turn their attention to smaller institutions, they bring lending disparities to regulators’ attention. The regulators seem to take these issues more seriously than during bank megamergers’ heyday.

There seems to be undue emphasis being placed on a provision that, generally, would have done nothing to avoid the recent financial crisis. Ultimately, however, the Volcker Rule has to be judged like any other regulation: do its benefits outweigh its costs?

Receiving Wide Coverage ...On the Regulatory Horizon: An anonymouse tells the Journal that the forthcoming Volcker Rule won't allow banks to use "portfolio hedging," thanks to JPMorgan Chase's whole "London Whale" debacle. "Regulators, in response to [JPM's disclosure its trades were a hedge], pushed to write a rule that would ensure banks couldn't engage in such trades," the paper reports. "The move will come as a blow to banks, which lobbied regulators to keep language allowing portfolio hedging in the rule." But finishing Volcker does not necessarily mean finishing Dodd-Frank. Dealbook reports that U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is set to give a speech Thursday that champions the financial reform act, but leaves open the possibility of adding more measures to end too big to fail in the future. "Lew is pushing for new measures to reduce the risks posed by money-market mutual funds," the article notes. "In addition, he argues that vulnerabilities still exist in the short-term debt markets that Wall Street firms tap heavily." Meanwhile, three Wall Street trade groups — the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and the Institute of International Bankers — are suing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for allegedly wrongfully issuing new directions for swaps as guidance rather than a formal rule. "At its heart, the challenge reflects a broad worry among industry activists and conservative lawmakers in Washington that the trading commission … has gone too far," Dealbook notes, while the Journal reports: "SIFMA and ISDA sued the CFTC before, in December 2011, which resulted in the CFTC revising a rule aimed at curtailing bets in commodities markets."

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a rule Tuesday that allows it to examine any nonbank servicer that handles more than one million student loan borrower accounts.

Ignoring the effects of loan seller origination, sourcing, and servicing processes in a post-GSE secondary market could generate losses for taxpayers.

Following tectonic shifts in the video rental industry, the very Blockbuster stores that were just yesterday a competitive advantage rather quickly became an albatross. That type of chain of events is one that bankers need to be especially on guard for.

Breaking News This Morning ...Fined: European Union regulators have fined eight financial institutions, including Deutsche Bank, Société Générale, Royal Bank of Scotland, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, for colluding in attempts to manipulate key global benchmark interest rates. Penalties total $2.32 billion. Future penalties are possible. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times

Google Wallet has undergone several major revisions since it launched and while the issues solved with its latest iteration were among its biggest hurdles, it's still too soon to declare a winner in the mobile wallet race.

There’s a reason most Americans still like their local banks, even if they detest the megabanks after the financial crisis.