BankThink

The idea of bringing criminal charges against one of the nation’s larger banks has become untenable. The potential cost in jobs, probable shareholder losses and market turmoil would be horrific.

Congress must create mechanisms to dampen the volatility of housing finance, writes James Lockhart, the former regulator for Fannie and Freddie, on the fifth anniversary of their takeover by the government.

Credit union leaders are "Storming the Hill" this week during NAFCU's Congressional Caucus with a purpose: to demand relief from the growth of new regulations that affect credit unions' ability to serve their member-owners.

Harland Connections CEO Raj Shivdasani urges credit unions to prepare for untethered banking, or "Infrastructure as a Service" (Iaas); how Square is aiming to harness the "informal economy"; and more.

For those closely connected to the mission of community-based financial institutions, the consumer call to action may be as strong as ever, but how do credit unions reach general consumers who may have tuned out the pro-CU messages?

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Time Really Flies: Five-year retrospectives of the 2008 meltdown were popular over the weekend and fed into Monday's papers. Journal economics editor David Wessel wove together a complete summary of the meltdown — from the fallout over the sharp decline in housing values to policymakers' decision-making over which firms to bail out and which to let fail. In the five years of recovery since the near collapse, "Americans could justifiably celebrate victory." But it is only a partial victory. "The fundamental unresolved policy question is this: Were the fiscal and monetary stimulus the wrong medicine, or were they just too small to do the job?"

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week.

The law's biggest mistake was failing to consolidate financial regulators, our Editor at Large says, but there are plenty of other shortcomings as well.

Recent acquisitions by MB Financial and PacWest illustrate how deals can add value. M&A is returning as a valid alternative for implementing strategy that will reshape the industry.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...JPM Ditches School: JPMorgan Chase is dropping out of the student loan business. The Journal calls the exit "the latest development in a larger push by JPMorgan to exit businesses it no longer dominates." The government, of course, is the dominant lender in this space, accounting for over 85% of the market. Wells Fargo now stands as the only big bank still making student loans, though Discover Financial Services has widened its student lending business over the last few years. JPM's decision gave the bank the opportunity to tell Reuters, which broke the news, that not making more loans "puts us in a position to redeploy those resources, as well as focus on our No. 1 priority, which is getting the regulatory control environment strengthened." As the Washington Post reminds readers, "in the past few months, the nation's largest bank has found itself entangled in litigation and investigations into a wide range of its businesses." JPM now joins Bank of America and Citi to be the subject of downsizing news this week. As previously scanned, B of A is selling its stake in China Construction Bank, while Citi has been steadily shedding its private-equity and hedge fund investments over the last month.