Consumer banking
President Obama has nominated Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Editors discuss why the move has little chance of winning Congressional approval and is emblematic of Washington's housing reform dilemma.
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Some of the most influential women in payments, with backgrounds at American Express, Fifth Third, Fiserv and other companies, share what they learned as they advanced their careers.
April 29 -
Mortgage servicers have halted the foreclosure process for hundreds of thousands of empty homes across the country. That has left many properties deteriorating and the original owners liable for taxes and upkeep.
April 25
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Wells Fargo is the latest big bank to try to get more revenue from its wealthiest clients by offering them fee-intensive investment-management products. But Wells and its wealth-management competitors, including JPMorgan Chase and PNC, also have to overcome their reputations and customers' reluctance to trust big banks.
April 24 -
Money transmitter licensing requirements, know-your-customer rules and other requirements create high costs and barriers to entry for new players in the payments field, says Dave Birch of Consult Hyperion. It's dubious that all the red tape is beneficial or necessary for payment accounts with small balances, he argues.
April 24 -
Eric John Abrahamson, author of "Building Home: Howard F. Ahmanson and the Politics of the American Dream," talks about what lenders today can learn from Howard F. Ahmanson's story.
April 23 -
Banks have to reconsider how their customers are using mobile technology, branches and ATMs, and successful companies will create an "integrated multichannel experience," says Bank of the West's Andy Harmening, a senior executive vice president and regional banking group head. He spoke to American Banker at the annual Best Practices in Retail Banking Symposium.
April 20 -
A lack of growth in core deposit-taking and lending in the first quarter bodes ill for an industry that's still struggling to regain its post-crisis footing. The disappointing numbers are likely to intensify banks' push to expand into businesses like wealth management and auto lending.
April 19 -
Bank of the West's Andy Harmening discusses the advantages of being owned by France's BNP Paribas. "For us, it's been a very positive relationship," he says. Harmening, a senior executive vice president and regional banking group head, spoke to American Banker at the annual Best Practices in Retail Banking Symposium.
April 18 -
Washington's star-crossed mortgage foreclosure settlement suffered yet another setback this week when checks belatedly sent out to homeowners bounced. The troubles that have plagued the program from start to finish raise a number of broader questions. Among them: whether regulators' fondness for complex solutions is itself a recipe for failure and whether the foreclosure settlement's litany of troubles will lead to concrete policy changes.
April 18
