BankThink

CardHub.com blasted the Federal Reserve Board after releasing a report evaluating what credit card issuers are required to tell their customers about possible interest rate hikes.

"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Tuesday it will amend its rule establishing new disclosures for international money transfers in a move designed to ease bankers' fears that the regulation is overburdensome," writes American Banker's Rachel Witkowski.

We now have two different definitions of a "high-cost" mortgage, as well as a "higher priced" mortgage, and a "higher risk" mortgage. Clearly, Congress failed to practice what it preaches.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Housing: The same market that dragged the U.S. into a nasty recession "is now a key economic driver at a time when other sectors are slowing," the Journal reports this morning. While GDP growth limps along and businesses fret about the fiscal cliff, "an improving housing market is buoying consumers' spirits and giving the economy its biggest lift since the real-estate boom." Mortgages remain hard to come by, but to the extent they can take on debt, homeowners are feeling more confident about doing so, and home equity borrowing is on the rise this year, the article says. The Journal's "Heard on the Street" column argues that the housing recovery could even "escape unscathed" from the broad economic damage that would occur if Congress failed to make a budget deal before Jan. 1. An economist quoted in the Post cautions that the housing market is about to head into the slow holiday season, so the price gains registered in September will be "the last hurrah" for the year. And in the bigger picture, it may take "more than a decade" for prices to rebound enough to erase all the negative equity weighing on consumers, he says. Meanwhile, the Times reports that an FHA rule change is encouraging development of condominiums in mixed-use, rather than residential-only, projects.

Banks must understand the risks associated with a potential partnership, assess how the effort will support their overall strategy and hire the right talent to manage the venture once it has been approved.

Banks must take a stand against a shattered culture or suffer the repercussions of a fractured chain of command, reduced productivity, high employee turnover, weak customer service and poor work quality.

Regulators released new details on how they will enforce restrictions on charter swaps by troubled banks writes American Banker's Joe Adler.

An increased cap would almost certainly lead large institutions, hungry for short-term profits, to take greater risks that they are ill-equipped to handle.

Taxpayers should not be paying to increase homeownership or to boost home prices. With interest rates low, lenders can charge for risk and homeowners can pay for it.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...There's a New Bobbie, Er, Mountie in Town: The surprise announcement that Mark Carney, Canada's central banker, will cross the pond to head the Bank of England could be viewed as a shot across the bow for global banks operating in the London regulatory haven. Granted, Carney is a Goldman Sachs alumnus (or "a member of the Government Sachs Club," as a Times headline put it). But he also has a history of ruffling bankers' feathers, and not just Jamie Dimon's. An economist tells the FT, "Carney is known to be fairly tough with commercial banks in Canada. His public comments suggest he is no great fan of 'light-touch' regulation. He also appears to have little time for arguments that higher bank capital buffers are preventing economies from growing." Beyond simple questions of tough or soft, the Journal notes that Carney "has been a vocal advocate of coordinating bank supervision between countries. That has not always been the philosophy among British regulators, who sometimes have embraced a go-it-alone strategy." Though he will again be playing the role of central banker, Carney's dealings with bankers will go well beyond monetary policy, since the BoE is set to take over much of the financial regulation done by the soon-to-be-scrapped Financial Services Authority. According to the FT's "Lombard" column, Carney "is credited with helping steer his country clear of the banking crisis. … And as chairman of the Financial Stability Board, the Canadian has an appreciation of the risks posed by shadow banking." That will surely come into play when he's policing the City, the shadowy home of the London Whale and AIG-FP. Is it churlish of us to note that Carney's wife, a British environmental activist, has called global financial institutions "rotten or inadequate" and expressed admiration for the Occupy movement, according to the Telegraph? The Economist goes as far as to speculate that before his five-year term at the BoE expires Carney might be lured back to this side of the Atlantic … to succeed Ben Bernanke at the Fed.