BankThink

Paul Thompson, former CUNA staffer, goes through credit union history, 1970 to present.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Buffett Holds (Uneventful) Shareholder Meeting: Many members of the media spent the weekend with Warren Buffett, but the news coming out of Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting — per articles in both the Times and the Journal — is that the Oracle of Omaha managed to avoid making any "big news." Buffett did engage in a discussion with "bear" Douglas Kass, who was invited to ask questions since he is "betting that the price of Berkshire shares will drop." But Kass "didn't draw much blood" and, overall, "Buffett largely reiterated positions he has stated publicly before — yes, he has decided on a successor, but, no, he is not saying who it is," notes the Journal. Perhaps those hoping for more details and/or insights can try following the Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO on Twitter.

Rather than worrying about carving up a depressed purchase market, policymakers should be looking for ways to ensure that creditworthy borrowers have access to homeownership.

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

Credit unions have joined community banks with the common thought that they should not be subject to CFPB regulations.

Finding the right pay formula is a messy business. Leave it to shareholders and the market to sort out.

Instead of downsizing, banks should reposition big branch networks to protect their ground from nonbanks and tech companies trying to infiltrate the financial services space.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Jamie in the Hot Seat: When the nation's two most influential dailies simultaneously run stories in which federal authorities leak word that they're gunning for a megabank, it ain't no tempest in a teapot. That's the reality JPMorgan Chase's (JPM) Jamie Dimon woke up to this morning as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal published features quoting flies on the wall who describe meetings where government officials told the bank's top managers they're in a world of regulatory hurt. During a mid-April get-together, officials from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York told Dimon, his fellow directors and certain members of his operating committee that they don't trust management, the Journal reports, citing "people familiar with the meeting." Both publications also report that JPMorgan Chase is in hot water with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has served it with a Wells notice accusing the bank and a Houston-based energy trading team of misrepresenting prices and overcharging California and Michigan for electricity (only the very young could miss the echoes of Enron.) Citing a confidential government document that was presented to the bank in March, the Times reports that the feds have concluded JPMorgan Chase devised "manipulative schemes" that transformed "money-losing power plants into powerful profit centers." Among the government's claims are that Blythe Masters, the bank's global commodities boss, gave "false and misleading statements" under oath. The bank disputed the allegations in a statement and said that no one lied under oath, according to the Journal. The claims that the bank engaged in fraud in the energy market come as regulators are looking into other areas where JPMorgan Chase is suspected of wrongdoing. The OCC is considering enforcement action over how it collected credit card debt (an area that over a year ago American Banker reported the OCC was scrutinizing. Authorities are also looking into the bank's possible failure to alert them of suspicions that Bernie Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme, the Times reports, citing "people who were not authorized to discuss the cases publicly." The mounting troubles come at a difficult time for Dimon. His lieutenants have been departing at a fast clip, and his credibility in Washington has been undermined by the London Whale trading losses, which also prompted his own board to cut his 2012 pay. On May 21, Dimon will face JPMorgan Chase shareholders and the results of a vote on whether he should retain both the chairman and chief executive titles. It's a humbling turn of events from just a year ago, notes the Journal, when Dimon was regarded as "the king of Wall Street." Wall Street Journal, New York Times

President Obama has nominated Penny Pritzker to head the Commerce Department, overlooking her role in the costly failure of Superior Bank.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is receiving slack from U.S. payday lenders after a recent report concluded the industry "traps consumers in a cycle of debt," writes American Banker's Kevin Wack.