BankThink

If the states are determined to reform force-placed insurance and the CFPB is determined to reform add-on products, they should propose rules and subject them to meaningful public notice and comment periods.

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp believes the financial industry "isn't just about numbers," and is concerned that the regulations coming out of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act do not "take into consideration long-term relationship banking."

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is planning a major facelift to its exam procedures. These changes will be designed to make the exam process faster and free up enforcement personnel to pursue their own investigations outside of the regular exams.

Acquisitive banks have frequently used the "accretive to earnings" pabulum to sway shareholders and justify overpriced transactions. This has created an illusion of acquisition value that is detrimental to the market.

Breaking News This Morning ...B of A Earnings: Bank of America continued the mixed bag of big bank earnings this morning, reporting an increase in third-quarter profit due to improved credit quality, which offset weak fixed income and a decline in mortgage revenue. Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times

In an effort to ease servicers' concerns about communicating with struggling or bankrupt borrowers who invoke certain legal protections, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released clarifications to its mortgage servicing rules.

Consumers will have more confidence in the formal system of money transfers once they are given clear information about how much money will actually be available on the receiving end.

Monitoring fraud and deception is an immense undertaking for third-party payment processors and banks. Trying to make them into first responders to various social pathologies is a step too far.

Breaking News This Morning ...Citi Earnings: Citigroup's third-quarter earnings are out and the quick take is that results are disappointing, thanks to a slump in bond trading and a decline in mortgage revenue. "Third-quarter net income, adjusted for certain items, slipped to $3.26 billion, or $1.02 per share, from $3.27 billion, or $1.06 per share a year earlier," Reuters summarizes. "We performed relatively well in this challenging, uneven macro environment," CEO Michael Corbat said in a prepared statement. Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, New York Times

These financially underserved individuals are far from disconnected. They are actually more active users of mobile phones and social media than the population at large.