BankThink

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Davos Dispatches: Lots of interesting news is coming out of that World Economic Forum junket in Switzerland. Jamie Dimon says JPMorgan Chase considered pulling out of Europe’s troubled peripheral countries, the so-called PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain), though he diplomatically referred to them as “the euro five.” The decision to stay was “largely social and partially economic,” the CEO said, according to the FT. … Too-big-to-fail behemoths of the world, unite! The Global Financial Markets Association, an umbrella group for trade associations in the U.S., Europe and Asia that’s kept a low profile to date, is reinventing itself as a lobbyist on international regulatory issues for the world’s biggest banks. The group is chaired by Blythe Masters, the head of commodities at JPMorgan and a pioneer of the credit default swap. … The European Union plans to raise objections to the Volcker rule with U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, the Journal reports. European officials worry the regulation will restrict U.S. banks’ ability to trade European sovereign debt on behalf of clients, hurting liquidity for these countries at a time when they really need it. Of course, the rule is supposed to ban only proprietary trading by banks, not old-school market-making, but banks have protested that there are gray areas between the two. … The Times profiles Treasury undersecretary for international affairs Lael Brainard, who’s in Davos “trying to coax European leaders to contribute to a financial firewall.” … BreakingViews reports that the plight of the 99% has cast a pall over the annual convocation. … But Reuters’ blogger Felix Salmon says that the Davos attendees really don’t care what the Occupy Wall Street crowd has to say. ... And if you care, wine tastings are once again being held at Davos, the Times reports. Fine, but please don't tell us what kind of shoes the female attendees we wearing. It can't be important.

Cash and traditional cards are entrenched. Without rewards, the digital wallets are unlikely to make a dent.

One of the biggest changes in modern regulation and supervision has been the stress test and capital conservation standards developed by the Federal Reserve and required in regulation by the Dodd-Frank Act.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Great Rates to Continue: "Great" if you're living on debt, like the U.S. government, that is. If you're a saver or retiree on a fixed income, or a bank trying to earn an interest rate spread, things don't look quite so peachy.

Richard Cordray is right to crack down on illegal practices in payday lending. It is essential that his agency also ensure consumers continue to have online access to emergency credit products.

Earlier this month, Citi announced the expansion of its popular "thankyou" program with a new Facebook app. If the number of likes (185,000 and counting) on Citi's page is any indication, it appears Citi has found a compelling way to engage its youngest and most fickle customers in the place they spend most of their digital time.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...State of the Union: During the (surprisingly brief) discussion of the housing mess in his speech last night, President Obama announced yet another mortgage refinancing program. “Responsible homeowners” could take advantage of low rates and save $3,000 a year without having to jump through bureaucratic hoops or deal with “runaround from banks,” he said. And if you coughed or sneezed at the precise moment, you might have missed this: “a small fee on the largest financial institutions” would pay for this program. Subsidizing these refis “will give banks that were rescued by taxpayers a chance to repay a deficit of trust,” Obama said. Zing! The president gave no other details on the refi plan, but the Times got the goods, or some of them, from an anonymous “senior administration official”: The program would cost no more than $10 billion. (How many of “the largest” banks would share that cost? The top four? The Big 19 TARP recipients? Unclear.) FHA is to guarantee the new loans. Unlike the revamped HARP program, which is available only to homeowners whose existing mortgages are held by Fannie and Freddie, the new plan (should it be called HARP 3.0 or HARP 2.5?) could benefit two to three million people whose loans are owned by private investors, the Times reports. Legislation would be required to allow FHA to refi the underwater mortgages and to authorize the bank fee. Notably, the president did not utter the word “foreclosure” once in his speech. New York Times, Businessweek, Associated Press, Washington Post (op-ed by economist Mark Zandi), Wall Street Journal.

I naively thought that Suze Orman's new prepaid offering, the Approved Card, would help turn the tide of negativity. Instead, it has had the opposite effect, creating a seemingly endless echo chamber about the evils of prepaid.

Alex Pollock's "Let's Put Checks and Balances on CFPB" is spot on describing the enormous danger of a politically unchecked CFPB lording over consumer financial services, and what animates its champions. They believe the financial services industry is rapacious and untrustworthy, a great many of their countrymen are not fully competent to make their own ("the right") choices selecting consumer financial products, and unconstrained regulatory mandarins produce better outcomes than lightly regulated markets.

A poster boy for the digital currency now says credit cards are “way simpler.” His fictional counterpart in the "Bitcoin for Dummies" episode of "The Good Wife" is similarly disillusioned.