BankThink

Higher capital requirements, sluggish GDP growth and antiquated cost structures are stymying banks’ efforts to boost returns to investors. This will likely lead to a boom in mergers and acquisitions over the next decade, writes Richard J. Parsons.

Expanded reporting requirements under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act will give regulators access to a panoply of sensitive data. Banks should take steps to address any fair lending issues before the new rules take effect, according to Warren W. Traiger.

JPM Sells Private Equity Stake; Usury Charges for Payday Lender

To understand the future of credit-based transactions, credit unions need only look to the staples of American culture: coffee and donuts.

Regulators need to provide clear standards as to what constitutes an acceptable living will, according to the American Enterprise Institute's Abby McCloskey and Paul H. Kupiec.

The Heartbleed bug alerted banks to their own vulnerabilities and made them realize that they have heightened responsibilities toward customers when it comes to communicating security concerns, according to Joram Borenstein of NICE Actimize.

Job Market Gains, But Rates to Remain Low; Banks' Enemy

Mobile point of sale providers claim to serve the merchants that are too small for card acceptance: the gardeners, the babysitters, the flea market sellers. But this image is quickly fading as vendors pursue larger merchants, causing the upstart mPOS players to increasingly resemble the incumbents.

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

The Export-Import Bank benefits just a handful of American companies and is weighed down by corruption, writes Ryan Young of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.