PayThink

As Occupy the SEC detailed in our recent comment letter, the agencies’ proposed implementation of the Volcker Rule strays from Congressional intent in several big ways.

Over the past couple of years, the seemingly dull topic of time management has become one that senior managers are showing increased interest in discussing with their teams. I suspect this has as least something to do with the fact that we are asking smaller and smaller branch teams to accomplish more with less.

Now that the agency overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has revealed the reasoning behind its stubborn opposition to mortgage principal reduction, the problems with its argument are clear.

"Confidence was so shattered that banks were holding vast unlent sums, and businesses did not want to invest in new capital even though interest rates were at abnormally low levels…The general loss in confidence was the main cause of the low demand, and thus the low level of employment."

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.