BankThink

Credit Union Journal's Frank Diekmann explains why CUs should have a strategy for new member growth.

Christopher M. Owen, president and CEO of Meriwest Credit Union here, is retiring after 22 years with the CU.

Buried in the Corker-Warner reform bill are two provisions that would give the Federal Home Loan banks an opportunity to play a major role in the new housing finance system.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Trader Sneak Peek Ending: Thomson Reuters will suspend providing a select group of investors with advance results of an important consumer confidence survey from the University of Michigan. The financial information company pays the school more than $1 million a year for the privilege of being the exclusive distributor of the report and releases the data two seconds early to about a dozen clients, who pay a hefty fee. Legal experts claim that the arrangement does not violate insider trading laws, the New York Times says. Thomson Reuters is a not a government agency, so it can distribute information as it sees fit as long as it discloses the practice. But New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman began investigating in April to see if the advance look violates state securities-fraud law. Thomson Reuters "is fully cooperating with the N.Y. Attorney General's review and made this change voluntarily at the request of the Attorney General," the company said in a statement, according to the Wall Street Journal. Wall Street Journal, New York Times

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

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Low-Rate Bonanza: Breaking with tradition, both the European Central Bank and the Bank of England (separately) pledged to keep interest rates low indefinitely. The forward guidance "underscored the stakes as officials around the world try to safeguard fragile economies as financial markets swing wildly," reports the Journal. Per the FT, ECB President Mario Draghi said the timing of the two announcements, tied to meetings held by both central banks, was coincidental. He also "denied his institution had been forced into a more dovish communication policy by the Federal Reserve's recent hints that it would slow the pace of its" bond-buying program. Meanwhile, the Times notes "that the Bank of England even issued a statement after its monetary policy meeting was a departure from previous practice and showed that [Mark] Carney, the former governor of the Canadian central bank, is making his mark just days after taking office."

Foreign banking organizations will need to create massive compliance and reporting systems to handle the Volcker Rule, even if the vast majority of their dealings are done outside its scope.

The industry doesn't need to invest millions in further education and legislation. The road to a good credit score is pretty straightforward.

Dunno about you (and by "you" I mean, say, the chief risk officer of Bank of Kokomo who'll also have to cover the teller window today on the eve of a holiday) but email traffic to my inbox slumped off last night — a sure sign people may be starting vacation early. However, the news kept churning yesterday and overnight, and if you are reading this you thirst for news, so here we go ...

No one is going to put a hand up with a radical new business model or push back on dangerous suggestions if they fear ridicule – or worse.