BankThink

NCUA needs to work harder to prove its legal authority to issue a risk-based capital rule, to show that the rule is really needed and to make it the least intrusive and best possible for the credit unions they regulate and insure.

Let this be the year that the financial industry stops using the phrase "big data" and remembers that the goal of technology is to make people's lives simpler.

U.S., Europe Diverge on Interest Rate Plans; Robot Bank Teller

Experts have predicted the roll-out and wider adoption of Apple Pay, Amazon Payments, PayPal and even Bitcoin will be the driving forces that finally make actual wallets and plastic cards obsolete, replaced by mobile payments and digital transactions executed with ease from a smartphone or digital wallet.

Many community banks will soon have to replace outdated technology — expenses that will hit them in an ongoing environment of compressed net interest margins, increasing compliance costs and higher capital requirements.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week.

Total overhaul of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is a long shot, but Congress can pass measures that set the housing agencies on a path to reform. Mandating deeper mortgage insurance coverage for loans sold to the housing agencies would be a good place to start.

Big Banks' Feeble Earnings Season; The Real Dread Pirate Roberts

With the introduction of Apple Pay, mobile wallet payment systems promise to disrupt long stagnant payment card status quo. But will these new services make our data and transactions safer?

Lenders could save time and money by offering homeowners the opportunity to finance the purchase of a rooftop solar system into a new mortgage.