BankThink

I'll admit it. I was surprised. The message - "Don't cut research" - didn't come from marketing. It didn't come from any research-affiliated department. It came from operations.

Regulators require a substantial amount of information to evaluate a proposed merger. Faced with the task of assembling a merger package, credit unions can respond in one of three ways:

It's hard to imagine that only 10 years ago, airbags were only available on a select number of new luxury vehicles. Today, most consumers wouldn't consider buying a used or pre-owned vehicle without them.

They had to wait until August, but America's credit unions just knew they'd get national media attention, and why wouldn't they? It's the movement's 100th anniversary after all, and banks have been headed south more often than a New York retiree come November (more than 70 failures so far-banks, not retirees). So when USA Today turned its four-color-attention to credit unions, the coverage was naturally about - drumroll, please - high NSF fees and what was reported as lackluster payday loan alternatives.

It seems unlikely that the head of a bank under such heavy government pressure would have much to say to public audiences, but Vikram Pandit hasn’t exactly been keeping his lips zipped. The Citigroup, inc. chief executive has been hop-scotching the globe this year, delivering a lecture at the London School of Economics, participating in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in Russia, and traveling on business to Singapore. Next month, Pandit will face an audience right in his company's own backyard.

Not everyone is thrilled with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s re-nomination to a second term at the Fed, and Columbia Journalism Review blogger Ryan Chittum has begun to chronicle the critics. He describes Breakingviews’ arguments against keeping Bernanke, and summarizes a disapproving op-ed by Stephen Roach, a Morgan Stanley executive, in today’s Financial Times. Thos two naysayers aren’t alone. Amar Bhide, a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, sparred yesterday on CNBC with Roger Altman, a former Deputy Treasury Secretary.

There’s a new list out of the world’s safest banks and there aren’t very many Americans institutions on it. Global Finance Magazine today released its annual assessment, based on credit ratings, of the top 50 safest banks out of the world’s largest 500. The first U.S. bank on the list comes in at No. 32: It is Bank of New York Mellon.

The Federal Reserve lost a lawsuit yesterday, and the decision could hold implications for the future of emergency borrowing and programs like the Talf. A U.S. District judge in Manhattan ordered the Fed to turn over information that journalists had requested about the identities of banks borrowing from the Fed and the collateral they’d posted to do so. When Bloomberg LP filed the suit last November at the height of the credit crunch, a win seemed nearly impossible. But now it’s a reality. Will the threat of exposure put bankers off the Talf? Will it make them less likely to borrow form the discount window when they’re in trouble? The answer seems to depend on what happens next.

The trillions in adverse financial exposure and lost economic opportunity were supposed to teach us, especially those of us connected with the banking system, something about risk. But a look at the latest trend in home appraisal practices shows that although the relationship between mortgage lenders and appraisers may look different on the surface, its nature remains troubled.

Forbes published its list of the 100 most powerful women in the world today and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair has come in second yet again. She was beat out for the top spot by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and she leads PepsiCo’ Chief Executive Indira Nooyi, who took third place.