BankThink

Credit Union Journal’s much-anticipated special event is designed to showcase the people-helping-people philosophy of the CU movement.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can still manage their risk exposure even after reducing or eliminating "loan level price adjustment" fees.

Editor's note: Morning Scan will not publish on Monday, Sept. 5 in observance of Labor Day. We'll be back on Tuesday, Sept. 6.

Despite being limited to 20 – 25 characters (including spaces), the purchase descriptor in a card statement is the best means by which an issuing bank and merchant can convince a cardholder that he or she has actually made the purchase and reduce chargebacks. In a world where many of us are challenged to communicate in 140 characters or less, 20-25 presents a true test.

Wells Fargo has worked toward achieving gender diversity internally, now it's courting women-owned businesses. Sallie Krawcheck says if organizations wanted to fix the gender pay gap, they could — easily. Meanwhile in Silicon Valley, the majors are promising to pay their male and female employees equally, and Accenture finds women on boards are twice as likely to have the right technology experience for a company as their male counterparts.

The inconsistency between what millennials say on surveys and their actual behavior should make bank marketers skeptical about building programs around such research.

The suggestion that any area has too many local institutions dismisses the importance of community banks and overlooks the dangerous effects of consolidation.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Call for consolidation: Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan called for more consolidation in the profit-challenged European banking industry, just after a German magazine reported the bank had considered amd rejected a bid for rival Commerzbank. "It is undeniable that Europe's banks are stuck in a fundamental dilemma," he said in remarks prepared for delivery at a conference in Frankfurt. "We have become significantly more secure since the financial crisis. We maintain more capital and liquidity with fewer risks in our balance sheets. However, we are also far less profitable today." Cryan said the European Central Bank's below-zero-rate monetary policy has made it hard for banks to make money.

Approximately 37 million adults in the United States — a number roughly equivalent to the population of California — do not have a checking account. Some of those individuals have never relied on traditional banking.

Industry fears about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's "UDAAP" authority recall steps Congress took in the '70s to rein in the Federal Trade Commission.