BankThink

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is seeking comments on how the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 has impacted consumers. The input will allow the agency to construct future proposals for new credit card rules.

Smartphone capabilities, like instant Internet access, integrated cameras and GPS systems, have given consumers more control over their banking relationship and are forcing financial institutions to adapt.

A new study concludes the agency's basic business model puts homeowners at an unacceptably high risk of default with negative consequences for communities. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...UBS Fined in Libor Probe: An irony of the Libor probe is that it's looking nearly as choreographed and negotiated as the long-running rate manipulation that preceded it. Early this morning UBS and Swiss regulators announced the bank had agreed to a $1.5 billion settlement, and arrests of people connected with the Swiss bank are expected today, according to anonymous sources. RBS is next in line to settle, these same sources say. As for that $1.5 billion UBS fine: despite rolling over early in the international probe, the bank played a central role in the manipulation, anonymous investigators believe. A Japanese subsidiary stepped up to take a single fraud conviction, though that doesn't seem to risk bringing UBS down Arthur Andersen style.

Massive regulation provides a deep moat protecting large financial institutions against competition from community banks and innovators.

Its purpose was to study what consumers know about dispute resolution clauses. This is particularly important because most checking accountholders are covered by these clauses and may not be aware of them.

The credit might have been "gold-gilded," but it did not make sense, the first test that a credit must pass.

Although this initial phase of the program may seem beneficial as it seeks to keep European competitors honest, enforced convergence is a double-edged sword that raises worrisome issues for our country.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Facebook IPO Settlement: Morgan Stanley's paying $5 million to settle a Massachusetts probe of how it handled the Facebook IPO. According to a Journal story crosschecked between the state's attorney general's office and people "familiar with the matter," star tech analyst Michael Grimes wrote a script with detailed, non-public information for Facebook's CFO to share with investors. Then, in what might seem a cynical approach to dealing with Morgan Stanley's supposed Chinese walls, Grimes walked down the hall so that he was out of earshot when the CFO read it. "I took extra precaution to do that, and sat on the floor," Grimes later said, according to the Massachusetts order. The two takeaways from this one are: that Morgan Stanley's actions do appear to run against post-Spitzer prohibitions of selective disclosures and analysts in bed with bankers, and that nobody seems to care enough to do anything serious about it. Financial Times, New York Times

To ensure compliance with applicable consumer financial laws, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a manual on how its examiners will review private student lenders. The Student Lending Examination Procedures will be used to examine both banks and non-banks that offer student loans.