BankThink

Labeling a quarter of the U.S. population as un- or underbanked may be derisive, but naming rights still go to those who control the financial services market – banks.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Missing Bank Director: Aubrey Lee Price, an investment adviser and a director of Montgomery Bank & Trust in Ailey, Ga. (which the FDIC seized Friday), has been missing for several weeks. On Tuesday the government accused him of wire fraud related to the embezzlement of $17 million from the bank. He has also been accused of defrauding investors in the funds he managed. Right before his disappearance, Price sent business associates a letter that read like a suicide note. Authorities consider him a fugitive. Wall Street Journal, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Lots of credit unions make loans for housing. Not that many get involved in the housing that leads to a loan. Meriwest CU does.

Today there are more than a few CUs that are building Assets Under Management that exceed 50% of their traditional balance sheet deposits and have goals to equal and exceed what they consider an antiquated measure of wallet share.

As CUs increase their emphasis on growing their membership base and enhancing the member experience, self-service lobby engagement tools have become even more critical.

Unreasonably high taxes generate less, not more revenue for governments. Likewise, banks might make more money with lower fees, and become more compliant and less hated.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is scheduled Tuesday to consider whether banks with under $10 billion in assets will be exempt from Dodd-Frank requirements to conduct swap trades through clearinghouses.

The House Financial Services Committee is holding two Dodd-Frank related hearings next week as part of Republican members’ agenda to eventually repeal the legislation, according to The Hill’s Floor Action Blog. Sounds kind of a like a not-so-happy birthday celebration for the act, which was passed in July 2010.

PricewaterhouseCoopers failed to warn shareholders and the public about increased risk at Barclays. The auditor gave the British bank a clean report card on internal controls over financial reporting. We now know those controls were seriously deficient.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Sick of Liborgate Yet? We know some readers are, and we’re starting to feel some fatigue too. But the scandal continues to dominate headlines, and if you cut through the salacious trader emails (admittedly a good bit of fun) and the sometimes sanctimonious commentary, it is undeniably an important story that touches on so many of the big issues in financial services today: regulators’ proper role, reputational risk, client trust, etc. The most original angle we saw on our rounds this morning comes from the FT: There’s an unusual provision in Barclays’ settlement with the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission, under which the U.K. bank, in addition to the usual monetary penalty and promise to revamp compliance, also agreed to “take on a role as an advocate for increased oversight for the industry.” Barclays will “encourage” the British Bankers Association and other publishers of interest rate benchmarks to reform the processes for Libor and other indexes. The FT frames this as “the latest example of the controversial practice of using enforcement pacts as a road map to change compliance,” of which the 2003 Wall Street research settlement may be the most famous example. The comment thread on this article is rich, too, e.g. this suggestion for making Libor more accurate: “A revised method could be adopted whereby the rate of borrowing polled is combined with a rate at which a willingness to lend is derived from a separate group and the ZOPA is used to establish the Libor.” (We are pretty sure that by “ZOPA” the commenter is referring to the negotiation concept “zone of possible agreement” and not recommending that the British peer-to-peer lending pioneer Zopa should get involved.)