PayThink

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.

In a perfect world, state attorneys general and the U.S. Department of Justice would have worked hand in hand with bank regulators to fix foreclosure wrongs. But that's not how the world works.

In a recent BankThink post challenging the rationale behind the Volcker rule, Richard E. Farley suggests that not a single bank collapsed because of proprietary trading in the last crisis.

Is the right way to hold banks accountable for servicing errors to require them to disgorge funds to borrowers who themselves may have been equally complicit in the process of helping to create mortgage fraud?

There is an iconic photo from the 1930s showing Richard Whitney, the former president of the New York Stock Exchange, being led off towards jail in his elegant suit. (He had stolen from the NYSE pension fund.) Sending him to jail didn't alleviate the Depression, but I suppose it gave many people a nice, warm feeling.

Credit unions love to talk about collaboration. In fact, that's what they're best at: talking about collaboration. The actual collaboration part? Not so much.

The next time you wonder what it takes to make your credit union competitive, think of the Broncos. It didn't take years of programs and processes. It didn't take an infusion of cash. It took strong, positive leadership and a shared winning attitude to take Denver into the post-season.