BankThink

As the Senate Banking Committee marked up its new credit card bill today, consumer groups were busy broadcasting facts and figures on what credit card borrowers need most during tough economic times and which practices would push them past their limits.

This week in Washington will be the last before Congress goes in its Easter recess, and it won´t be a quiet one. Though the Senate may mercifully leave off its pursuit of legislation to tax AIG bonuses, there will still be bankruptcy to worry about, and certain members of the House will be focused on a mortgage bill from Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will continue to push his regulatory restructuring plan with appearances on ABC´s Sunday morning talk show This Week with George Stephanopoulos and MSNBC´s Meet the Press with David Gregory. Also watch this week for guidelines from the Treasury and the Small Business Administration on how the government´s purchases of SBA loan-backed securities will be orchestrated.

The business books and the pundits call it "lost opportunity cost," the abstract yet very real economic benefits never realized because a business didn't act when it should have.

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) — or more globally, advocacy indexing — is now familiar to most credit unions as a useful tool for understanding the member experience, assessing member loyalty, and predicting likely growth. Research suggests, however, that only 15% of organizations employing the tool would claim they are doing so effectively.

The following letter was submitted to 100 Voices by the $16.6-billion State Employees Credit Union in North Carolina. It was handwritten by a member and submitted by CEO Jim Blaine, who said, "I gave some thought to how best to define 'the voice of SECU' for your series. Decided to share with you a note from one of our members — affectionately known as 'The Cat Food Letter.' If you want to know what our organization is about, she nailed us!"

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is laying out his regulatory restructuring plan today for the House Financial Services Committee. His proposal focuses on getting too-big-to-fail institutions under control. It would give the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. the authority to seize and dismantle failing financial firms deemed systemically important by the Federal Reserve Board. BankThink brings you Geithner´s testimony and the committee members´ questions live.

When, this morning, during the House Financial Services Committee hearing on AIG oversight, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., referred to the "small group of Wall Street types that are making decisions," she wasn´t talking about just any finance experts. She was wiggling a finger under the lid of the biggest conspiracy this side of 9/11-or so she made it seem.

The House Financial Services Committee is interrogating Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and New York Fed President William Dudley on the government's handling of the AIG bailout. We here at BankThink were expecting more pressure on Geithner than has materalized so far, and we were also hoping for some hints on the Treasury's new regulatory restructuring plan. Geithner's opening statement contained a brief mention of the need for an authority to seize and dismantle non-bank financial institutions that pose systemic risks. But there were few details, and Geithner didn't say which government agency should be granted the authority.

Another day is dawning on Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner´s baptism by fire and it will be an important one. Yesterday, investors and markets cheered when he unveiled details of his plan to clean toxic assets of banks´ balance sheets. Today, the House Financial Services Committee, with its bonus-hungry Democrats and its bloodthirsty Republicans, will interrogate Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and New York Fed President William Dudley on the orchestration of the AIG bailout. The hearing is just beginning, and Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., has announced what we all expected: That the questioning will be "open to other matters."

There isn´t too much time left before Congress´ Easter recess and the consensus is now that the bankruptcy reform legislation the House passed won´t make it through the Senate before everyone leaves town. But that doesn´t mean this week in Washington will be a quiet one. Furor over the bonuses paid to American International Group executives has upended many formerly solid power dynamics on the Hill. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd may be in trouble and, judging from his swift plunge, the next victim of unchecked populist grandstanding is anyone´s guess. Somewhere in the fray is a bill that would claw back most bonus payouts not just from AIG employees but from some Troubled Asset Relief Program fund recipients as well. Dark times indeed for those bankers and perhaps the source of a comment during Thursday´s Senate Small Business Committee hearing that there ought to be separate bailout programs for "good people" and "bad people."