BankThink

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Central Banks Warn Private Sector to Act: The world's central banks have done their job; now it's time for political leaders to do theirs. That's the message delivered by the Bank for International Settlements, colloquially known as the central bankers' bank, in the wake of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comments that the Fed may slow its bond-buying program later this year. "Cheap and plentiful central bank money had merely bought time," the BIS said in its annual report, and additional stimulus will only make it more difficult for the global economy to return to health, the FT reported. Two leaders of the BIS, whose members include the Federal Reserve Board and the European Central Bank, said that "returning to stability and prosperity is a shared responsibility" and the "The balance between costs and benefits is deteriorating," the Times noted. The most dangerous aspect of the efforts of central banks is that it deludes the private sector from making its own reforms, with a BIS executive saying "low interest rates and unconventional monetary policies have made it easy for the private sector to postpone deleveraging," the Journal reported. Financial Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal

Two American Banker staffers who cover mergers and acquisitions have a confession to make. We sometimes get so enmeshed in the arcane numbers behind bank deals that we overlook what really makes them tick: the human element.

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

Getting new credit cards in the hands of emerging market consumers requires unique processes that ensure timely and compliant delivery.

Given the robustness of trade in some large urban areas, it is entirely possible to earn a living from buying and selling bitcoin

A final rule was released late Thursday by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency extending the deadline for banks to comply with a requirement that limits credit exposure per customer.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Lawsky Strikes Again: Benjamin Lawsky has certainly had a busy week. The New York state regulator followed up his $10 million Deloitte settlement with a $250 million settlement with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ over money-laundering allegations on Thursday. True to form, the settlement upstages an $8.5 million fine the Japanese bank paid to federal regulators last December. (Scan readers will recall that last year, Lawsky reached a $340 million money-laundering settlement with the U.K.'s Standard Chartered last August. The move preceded a $330 million settlement with federal agencies in December.) In the Bank of Tokyo settlement, "the disparity stemmed partly from the wider latitude that Mr. Lawsky has to dole out punishments on the banking industry," Dealbook explains. "The Treasury Department is somewhat hamstrung by a quirk in federal law that permitted certain transactions with Iran until 2008." Law quirks aside, Lawsky's latest action, which could unsettle regulators globally, has drawn ire from those on Wall Street and in Washington. "The contrast reinforces the perception that the feds are going light on large financial institutions, and that Lawsky is out to fill the vacuum where he can using New York state laws," argues Bloomberg columnist Jonathan Weil, following up an earlier op-ed entitled "World Needs More Hardheads Like Benjamin Lawsky." And New York magazine's Kevin Roose offered this more diplomatic assessment of New York's rebel regulator, prior to the Bank of Tokyo settlement: "There's a bit of populist grandstanding in Lawsky's approach, of course … But for years, many of the regulators who are supposed to be enforcing the law on Wall Street have been lulled into inaction by their fear of doing the wrong thing. And, in that context, Lawsky's hard-headed crusade for justice makes him one of the most fascinating people around." Financial Times, Wall Street Journal

Fonetic, a Spanish company that provides speech analytics and voice recording software for compliance purposes, arrived on Wall Street Thursday.

Whether the product is a video game or a bank account, no business should take customers for granted or underestimate competitors.

According to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, several critical rules under the Dodd-Frank Act will be released in the upcoming months.