BankThink

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Greek Bailout, Act II: This may finally be it. A bailout pact to end the Greek financial drama that has threatened to end in a global economic tragedy.

In a recent BankThink post challenging the rationale behind the Volcker rule, Richard E. Farley suggests that not a single bank collapsed because of proprietary trading in the last crisis.

Is the right way to hold banks accountable for servicing errors to require them to disgorge funds to borrowers who themselves may have been equally complicit in the process of helping to create mortgage fraud?

There is an iconic photo from the 1930s showing Richard Whitney, the former president of the New York Stock Exchange, being led off towards jail in his elegant suit. (He had stolen from the NYSE pension fund.) Sending him to jail didn't alleviate the Depression, but I suppose it gave many people a nice, warm feeling.

Credit unions love to talk about collaboration. In fact, that's what they're best at: talking about collaboration. The actual collaboration part? Not so much.

The next time you wonder what it takes to make your credit union competitive, think of the Broncos. It didn't take years of programs and processes. It didn't take an infusion of cash. It took strong, positive leadership and a shared winning attitude to take Denver into the post-season.

Great, not just good, effective leadership will be one of the key factors of how the success of organizations will be measured in the future. And how current leaders set an ethical standard to follow and having the will to follow it may be their most important legacy.

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The prospect for principal reductions as a mortgage modification alternative has never looked as promising as it has with a number of important housing announcements over the last few weeks. The Federal Reserve's housing white paper, for instance, highlighted the need for more attention on principal reduction modifications, and it was featured again in the president's housing plan.

Editor's Note: The Morning Scan is off Monday, Presidents' Day. We'll be back on Tuesday, Feb. 21.