American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. Comments are excerpted from reader response sections of AmericanBanker.com articles and our social media platforms.

Initial coin offerings are the latest fad for many emerging cryptocurrency companies and projects. From the recently completed Lisk, Waves and Mycelium coin offerings to the historic crowd sale by the DAO – which was subsequently hacked for about $60 million – to Bitland, Project Decorum, Elastic Project and a good number more sales, the trend is clear.

The decision by a federal appeals court to toss out a blockbuster settlement between retailers and the card networks could re-expose some banks to legal liability and threaten their already challenged interchange income.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Thursday that it paid $24.5 million in restitution to consumers after uncovering illegal activities in auto finance and payment firms in the first four months of this year.

Flagstar Bancorp in Troy, Mich., is paying $371 million to put behind it the vestiges of its dealings with the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

First Bank in Hamilton, N.J., has raised $13.7 million by selling common stock.

NPL investors will have to consider principal reductions and offer more sustainable loan modifications.

The $126 billion-asset holding company for Regions Bank said Jeremy King, who had been support manager for private wealth, is now executive vice president of wealth management strategy and effectiveness for Regions Wealth Management.

Banks, credit card companies and other financial firms are strategizing ways to stave off higher legal bills they expect from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposal to limit the use of arbitration clauses, which is likely to open the floodgates to class action lawsuits.

A $5.7 billion settlement by Visa and MasterCard was rejected by an appeals court in New York, potentially renewing years of litigation with U.S. merchants over allegations that credit-card swipe fees were improperly fixed.

The business case for real-time payments is not the opportunity to charge high fees. Rather, the payoff – which will take time – will come in retaining customers, lowering operational costs, and delivering timely financial insights to smartphone-toting customers.

WASHINGTON — Whether bitcoin is actual currency is at the forefront of a first-of-its-kind money-laundering case in Florida to be decided Friday.

Debt collection complaints fell in May, and the average of complaints from March through May also dropped, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s latest monthly complaint report.

Attendees at the recent White House fintech summit shined a spotlight on shared innovation challenges. To overcome them and help the U.S. make progress in financial services, we need to embrace these three regulatory reforms.

BancorpSouth Bank agreed Wednesday to a $10.6 million settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Justice Department for allegedly discriminatory mortgage lending practices that harmed minorities.

The $5.5 billion-asset company said in a press release Wednesday that Vincent Palagiano, who has been its chief executive since 1989, will retire at the end of this year. Kenneth Mahon, Dime's president and chief operating officer, will succeed Palagiano, who will remain chairman.

Wirecard AG has agreed to buy Citigroup’s institutional prepaid card business, giving Germany-based Wirecard its first market foothold in North America.

The Little Rock, Ark., bank got the final regulatory approval it needed to buy C&S and C1, but not before agreeing to address some community reinvestment concerns in the Atlanta market and elsewhere.

Although intended to protect investors from market volatility, a decision by Betterment to temporarily suspend trading the morning after the British referendum has the wealth management industry wondering aloud if the robo-adviser harmed its reputation instead.

Iberiabank in Lafayette, La., has added a retired investment banker to its board. The $20 billion-asset company said in a press release Tuesday that Rick Maples, who once was head of investment banking at Stifel Financial, had become a director.