PayThink

Extending the law that provides unlimited deposit insurance on non-interest bearing demand deposits would send a signal that just maybe the industry is not fully healthy and still needs support.

In recent months at least 650 thrift institutions have experienced a change in supervisory agency from the Office of Thrift Supervision to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as mandated by Dodd-Frank. Also, thrift holding companies now come under the supervision of the Federal Reserve Board.

We now have the credit union version of the grand, missed opportunity: Serving the Overserved. Enough already with poor people and all their moaning about living paycheck to paycheck; what about dealing with all the pressures of a paycheck that requires an asset manager and two Swiss banks?

It is true that policies and procedures are closely related, but while many treat these as if they always go together, they are not the same.

Dick Johnson, the former head of Western Bridge Corporate FCU, writes in to sing the praises of a successor, Phil Perkins.

The perfect metaphor for the housing crisis sits, ignominiously, off the coast of Italy. That lumbering hulk of a ship – the once Grand Concordia — is stuck, half sunk, going nowhere, and the prospects for the situation improving are problematic at best. Refloat? Scrap? Maritime experts are weighing the pros and cons, but I think there's general agreement about siphoning off the fuel before a possible leak turns pristine waters into a very toxic mess.

As the Transaction Account Guarantee program is such an important issue to community banks, I read with interest Ms. Barbara Rehm's column titled "Rehm on TAG: Don't Extend it, End it." The piece omitted discussion of the reasons the TAG was created by the FDIC in the first place and why those reasons are still valid today.

The sovereign debt crisis affects all of us, whether we're managing risk at a trillion-dollar bank in North America or at Main Street Bank in Small Town, USA. Even if we don't have customers overseas, our customers at home may be affected either directly or indirectly by events on the other side of the Atlantic.

Reading "Capital One Is Nearly Unscathed in Deal Victory" reminded me of watching ING Direct CEO Arkadi Kuhlmann address a major banking conference several years ago. He presented a detailed description of his unconventional approach to consumer banking and explained how each facet contributed to the success of the initiative.

Like the mast of a sailing ship coming over the horizon, the first sign that Congress may restructure Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has appeared.