BankThink

There is a compelling case for business parties to use smart contract technology in the future to complete binding legal contracts.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board's accounting rules for credit risk have good intentions, but a likely amplification of the ups and downs of the credit market was probably not one of them.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Incentive to cheat?: Wells Fargo was hit with the largest penalty in the history of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to settle charges that thousands of employees created unauthorized bank and credit card accounts for customers in order to collect bonuses for themselves. The company fired 5,300 employees as a result. The bank agreed to pay a $185 million regulatory enforcement action plus another $5 million in customer remediation. Wells' own analysis found that thousands of its employees had signed up customers for more than 1.5 million deposit accounts and more than 565,000 credit card accounts without their knowledge or consent. They also issued debit cards without customers' approval, including issuing PINs and creating phony email addresses. "The settlement underscored incentives and sales goals led employees to illegally open new accounts," American Banker reports.

It’s well known that blockchain technology decentralizes decision making and fosters decision by consensus.

Within five years, a dramatic transformation of the mortgage market will force firms to expand product menus beyond mortgages to develop stronger relationships with their customers.

A likely sale of CIT Group's aircraft unit (and a whole lot of other stuff) is keeping Ellen Alemany busy, a former Wall Street banker talks about big data as a financial weapon of mass discrimination targeting women and the poor, and First Busey shows how investing in employees pays off. Also, TIAA's Kathie Andrade, Deloitte's Cathy Engelbert and (to spice things up) Victoria Beckham.

Without incentives to shoot higher, banks usually settle for "Satisfactory" on their Community Reinvestment Act exams, but many find that not getting a better grade has consequences.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Two heads...: JPMorgan Chase said Mark Leung, head of its Asia Pacific equities business since 2014, and Jason Sippel, global head of prime services, will together run the bank's global equities division. The two replace Tim Throsby, who left to run Barclays' corporate and international division. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times

As one of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms, it’s natural that fraudsters would be tempted to game the Amazon system. If it could happen to an e-commerce giant like Amazon, what hope does a smaller e-commerce site have against the fraudsters who run even sneakier scams - like transaction laundering?

Despite their slowdown in growth, marketplace lenders are still in good position to gain from the digitization of the financial services industry.