BankThink

Since the public announcement of the rule making, there have been extensive comments and quotes in the trade publication from individuals and associations opposed to such a revision to the rule. Remember, no credit union advocate ever wielded a sword mightier than their computer when they sit down to e-mail their regulator.

Third-party integration was a significant challenge for many credit unions, so much so that it wasn't unusual to see a credit union adopt its core processor's offerings simply in pursuit of the path of least resistance. Today, technology has relieved that burden somewhat.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Barclays Branded a Big Disgrace: Newly-minted Barclays Chairman David Walker has got a pretty tough job on his hands when it comes to revamping his bank's image. A new report from British lawmakers calls Barclays' steps towards rigging the London Interbank offered rate "disgraceful," says CNN. It also suggests the Libor scandal stemmed from a "deeply flawed culture" at the bank and was not simply the actions of a "small group of rogue traders."

Feedback from supervisors can help to improve decisions sometimes merely by posing the right questions and pursuing the answers. Supervisors can be especially important in providing an independent review of the quality of decisionmaking within a company.

There's no consensus among bankers on whether the qualified mortgage rule, which the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will issue, should include a certain protection for lenders.

Two wide-ranging regulatory proposals from Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, which so far have received scant attention, could put the brakes on implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act.

The ability of regulators to seize and unwind a failing large company — the very heart of the Dodd-Frank Act — is caught in a crossfire. Stuck in the middle? The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

If very different lines of business are walled off from one another, conflicts of interest and risk can be mitigated without losing any of the benefits of one-stop banking.

Breaking News This Morning ...The Long and Winding Road: Four years after the government bailout of Fannie and Freddie, the Treasury is restructuring the terms of its investment in the beleaguered behemoths of housing. Instead of a mandatory 10% quarterly dividend, an arrangement which at times has forced the GSEs to borrow more from the government to pay the government, the Treasury will now capture any and all profits they generate. When Fannie and Freddie aren't making money, they won't have to pay. The new terms also accelerate the shrinkage of the GSEs' portfolios to 15% annually beginning next year, from the current required pace of 10%. The government is reworking the terms because the open-ended financial commitment to the GSEs that the administration announced on Christmas Eve 2009 (remember that fast one?) is set to expire this year. The capital available for Fannie and Freddie to draw down will once again be capped, and the government wants "to avoid the prospect that Fannie and Freddie could one day exhaust their Treasury support simply because they might not generate enough profits to pay back those dividends," according to the Journal. The catch is that forking over all their earnings will make it harder for Fannie and Freddie to build capital. Wall Street Journal, FHFA Press Release

Eminent domain is a well-meaning bid to help individual homeowners, but it also would raise borrower credit costs and undermine efforts to inject private capital back into mortgage markets.