BankThink

Carla Decker has withdrawn her name for confirmation to the board of the National Credit Union Association.

This is a letter in response to the 'Senate Leader Plans Vote on MBLs Bill'.

Audit committees must follow rules already on the books that charge them with hiring and firing auditors. That includes booting an auditor that allows executives to put banks at risk of failure for their own enrichment.

Behind closed doors they live in a constant state of fear, ducking calls from bank and servicing representatives, opening certified letters with shaking hands.

I am sad to see Cam Fine of the Independent Community Bankers of America resort personal attacks on me and my firm in response to my comment, "TAG Actually Gives Big Banks the Advantage." I can imagine that my comment stung a bit, but Cam and all of the people at ICBA know that I am one of the most vocal advocates for community banks in the U.S. Indeed, our firm is focusing a great deal of time and effort to help small banks raise capital and compete with the too-big-to-fail banks.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Landlord of America? Bank of America is testing a “mortgage to lease” program that lets struggling borrowers stay in their homes by signing over the deeds and renting the properties back from the lender, the papers report. The bank could eventually sell the homes to investors willing to keep them as rentals. It’s a small program for now — on Thursday, B of A sent 1,000 offers to homeowners in three states — but a big departure from the usual strategies for avoiding foreclosure (loan modifications, short sales, procrastination). Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Naked Capitalism.

Before moaning about unbanked consumers and their supposed lack of financial literacy, bankers, federal regulators, lawmakers might consider that there once was a product that targeted this situation.

With all due respect to my friend Chris Whalen, the view from Main Street in Ashland, Missouri; Newman Grove, Nebraska or Pine Mountain, Georgia is much different than the view from the 26th floor of West 57th Street in New York City.

The Federal Reserve Board's stress test for the largest bank holding companies has been compared to a treadmill, on which patients are told to exert themselves so doctors can see how long they'll last. But, is the stress test in fact a financial analog to proven medical science so that we can indeed judge just how healthy big bank holding companies are after the Fed gets done with them?

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Deutsche Ditches Dodd-Frank: When it comes to avoiding the odious capital requirements of the Dodd-Frank Act, those who can are voting with their feet. Germany's Deutsche Bank (DB) has become the latest big non-U.S. financial institution to ditch the bank holding company status of its Yankee subsidiary, Taunus Corp. That's according to disclosures by the bank and Federal Reserve's website, as reported in the Wall Street Journal.