BankThink

As I tried on my colleague's Google Glass headset, I had a flashback to my first time using the Starbucks app to make a payment. And I was surprised to find Google Glass worked better.

The FTC's move to hold payment processors responsible for the deeds of unscrupulous merchants could result in higher prices or fewer choices for small businesses and consumers.

Companies that create goods or enhance existing services are seen as innovative and responsive. Businesses that impose fees without adding value often wind up paying a reputational price.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Citi Settles: Citigroup has agreed to pay $968 million to settle claims it sold bad mortgages to Fannie Mae. Analysts tell the Wall Street Journal Citi may settle with Freddie Mac over similar charges as well, though official spokesmen for both parties are declining to comment. Citi did say that the settlement charges would be covered by its existing mortgage repurchase reserves. The bank plans to add $245 million to this reserve in the second quarter. Scan readers will recall Bank of America agreed to pay $10.3 billion to settle similar claims with Fannie Mae back in January. The FT notes the Citi deal "brings the banking industry a step closer to paying for past wrongdoing related to mortgages, which has cost tens of billions of dollars in claims for compensation, lawsuits and fines." Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase remain as the "banks with the largest demands from Fannie" that have yet to settle. New York Times, Washington Post

Regulators are challenging banks’ relationships with disfavored businesses, citing the endlessly adaptable concept of reputation risk rather than law or regulation.

An explicit guarantee is better than the implicit one Fannie and Freddie had. But a more fundamental approach is to demand that financial actors internalize and capitalize the risks themselves.

Throughout America's Credit Union Conference this week, participants will see wide and varied reference to two crucial initiatives CUNA is currently pursuing: Unite for Good and Don't Tax My Credit Union.

It's a semi-well known piece of Americana that one of the so-called forefathers of this country, John Adams, had predicted that July 2nd was destined to be a great American holiday, and that people nearly 250 years later would be saying things like, "Lit up like Second of July fireworks."

Every now and then someone adds his or her two cents to a concept and inadvertently creates what could be a million-dollar idea.

Goldman Sachs, one of the owners of a newly designated “minority bank,” has a history of discriminatory behavior.