BankThink

A bill looming in Congress would require the Internal Revenue Service to accept electronic transmission of lending-related forms, which could speed up the lending process by days.

Politicians clamoring for the largest U.S. institutions to be broken up have failed to consider the prospect of China acquiring a bigger piece of the American banking system.

Wall Street JournalTighter grip: The OCC Friday unilaterally revoked parts of its recent regulatory consent order with Wells Fargo following the bank's phony accounts scandal. The agency ordered Wells to first seek its approval before changing its business plans, hiring or firing senior executives or revamping its board of directors. The bank was also banned from making golden parachute payments to departing executives without OCC approval.

The EMV migration has been sluggish, but it's a vital part of protecting cardholders.

Banks should focus on strategies to ensure their sales incentives programs actually help drive profits. Otherwise, their rewards programs are at risk of adding zero benefit to their bottom line.

For all of the sophisticated ways criminals might try to launder money, banks still need to defend against low-tech methods that aren’t easy to track.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Settled: JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay $264 million and admit it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act to resolve charges that it hired relatives of Chinese government officials and managers of state-owned companies to win business in China. But it may only be the first of many banks to do so. Several other U.S. and foreign banks are under investigation for similar practices, including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, HSBC and UBS. "We do not expect this to be the last action resulting from that sweep," said Andrew J. Ceresney, the head of enforcement at the SEC.

Forget about municipal governments. Through transactions such as payments, banks have a trove of data that can be used to revolutionize how cities work.

Mary Jo White's exit from the Securities Exchange Commission could make even her critics unhappy (note to Sen. Elizabeth Warren: be careful what you wish for). Former Nasdaq intern Adena Friedman makes her longtime ambition of becoming CEO of the stock exchange a reality, Amy Brady talks about the growing influence of CIOs, and Edith Cooper encourages conversations about race at Goldman Sachs. Also, Annie Leibovitz has taken some new portraits of women that you can check out in a free exhibit.

The complexity for large banks trying to improve culture is they are made up of different entities with competing missions and therefore competing cultures.