BankThink

Why would a bank issue prepaid debit cards to its customers? It's an inferior product for consumers and banks alike. Issue prepaid credit cards instead, with four times the interchange.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Assessing the Visa/MasterCard Settlement: Everyone digested news of the Visa/MasterCard settlement over the weekend, weighing who won and lost in the $7.2 billion pact. That $1.2 billion of the deal is attributed to a 10-basis point cut in fees that will expire after eight months shows how much the card companies managed to protect.

Big banks' boards keep missing increased risk and poor internal controls. Their auditors, supposedly shareholders' first line of defense against poor financial disclosure, material misstatements and fraud, have been silent.

Louis Hernandez, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Open Solutions Inc., shares obstacles and promises for economic recovery.

Denise Cooper, CEO of Upper Cumberland Federal Credit Union sends a thank you to CU Journal.

You never know what you're going to get when it's a futurist on the agenda; in other words, it's hard to predict the futurist.

David Savoie, president and CEO of Louisiana Corporate, reflects on the good in U.S. Central Bridge Federal Credit Union.

As Dodd-Frank's two year anniversary approaches "scores of rules that the law had mandated to be completed at this point are still uncompleted," writes American Banker's Donna Borak, citing analysis by the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell.

Let's wrap up the week of Dodd-Frank negativity with something a little more upbeat: an insurance executive who'd like to point out a positive in Dodd-Frank.

Due to ever-increasing compliance requirements, consumers have already lost free checking. Now, the Bureau's sights are set on general purpose reloadable prepaid cards.