BankThink

There's lots of new innovation going on in payments. Some of the ideas make sense and some are crazy. Regardless of each idea’s success or failure, they all point to an industry in need of innovation.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council has manifestly failed to demonstrate that it has any idea how to determine if a financial firm is systemically important, writes AEI fellow Peter Wallison.

Recovery rates for covenant-lite loans, which impose few financial restrictions on debtors, were pretty decent during the last downturn. But history may not repeat itself.

Markets Too Euphoric: BIS; BNP Details Emerge

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

Many banks measure mortgages as they would any other consumer product. But the unique, complex nature of mortgage activity necessitates measuring origination net revenue separately from the bank’s decision about whether to invest in the originated loan.

As depositor-owned cooperatives, credit unions have a long history of careful and responsible stewardship of member assets — amply demonstrated during the recent financial crisis.

Almost every expert opinion about future interest rates since the Great Recession has predicted an increase in long term rates. NCUA has identified interest rate risk as the "most significant risk the industry faces right now."

Full steam ahead — that's our call to arms at CUNA these days.

Enterprise risk management: why now? This is a question that many credit unions may be struggling to answer. It must occur to each of you at some point that you have been able to manage risk all of these years without it.