BankThink

The only way to put an end to "too big to fail" is to safely unwind banks without a government rescue according to Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

Young families looking to put down roots in a community must be served if we are going to grow our economy and sustain the housing recovery.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Mortgage Settlement Checks to Be Mailed: Regulators announced yesterday that the first round of checks related to their $8.5 billion settlement with banks over alleged foreclosure processing mistakes will soon be in the mail. Many news outlets led with the stats. The Fed and the OCC "are set to dole out roughly $1.2 billion in the first batch of payments," Dealbook reports. "By April 12, the regulators expect to mail 1.4 million checks." Others focused on just how little the borrowers are actually getting. As the opening paragraph of the Wall Street Journal article notes, "The vast majority of borrowers … will get $1,000 or less apiece, a sobering coda to a protracted attempt to help those who may have been placed into foreclosure as a result of banks' mistakes." Or, as the American Banker headline summarizes, "Foreclosure Review Amounts to Peanuts for Most Borrowers." Regulators' attempts to address this issue have long been on the receiving end of criticism. American Banker readers will recall that the settlement replaced a "bungled" foreclosure review process that appeared to benefit consultants more than the involved homeowners. More big picture coverage on the soon-to-be mailed settlement checks can be found here: Bloomberg, Reuters

What's the most inane complaint your bank has ever received?

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created under the 2010 Dodd-Frank reform law, is now taking consumer complaints on money transfers before the agency finalizes any changes to its remittance rule.

We must make clear that in all bank failures all creditors, other than insured depositors, will face risk of loss so that neither the FDIC nor taxpayers will lose money.

Forcing traders to strap computers on their heads may sound extreme, but consider the current threat. Saving billions from trading losses might take the sting out of the loss of privacy.

An honest debate over our "too big to fail" problem and a sound policy response are incompatible with a wait-and-see approach to the laws already on the books.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Confirmed: As expected, the Senate confirmed former federal prosecutor turned corporate defender Mary Jo White as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. She's set to start at the SEC any day now, but already has her hands full. On the SEC's (and as such White's) to-do list, per Dealbook: "complete new rules for Wall Street," "take aim at financial fraud," "confront the growing world of high-frequency trading … and money market funds." The Post reports, before she was confirmed White told Senator Al Franken "she would consider reforming the credit rating agency industry." She'll also need to address growing hostility over the SEC's delays in "establishing the rules to implement new online crowdfunding portals" authorized as part of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act last April.

If we're powerless to break up the banks, we're also powerless to bail them out should they fail. Bloated size, leverage and managerial dysfunction will do the work the public can’t.