PayThink

A letter to the editor in response to "Citi’s Facebook App Exposes the Perils and Rewards of Social Media," published online Jan. 3 and in print Jan. 4.

The CFPB can and should impose safeguards against predatory payday lending institutions. And big banks should take heed and stop providing these lenders with lines of credit.

The Dodd-Frank Act in general, and in particular its favorite child, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, represent sharp political disputes, as now with bypassing the Senate by the "recess" appointment of its director.

Conventional investor wisdom has it that a majority of bank mergers don't realize their promised synergies— leaving both the banks and their investors disappointed. Yes, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence of "in-market" mergers between two banks from the same country that did not live up to the hype.

Republican Jon Huntsman is putting a conservative imprint on the idea of breaking up the largest banks.

Bankers are frustrated by lackluster earnings and low stock prices despite improving balance sheets. Many long for the return of pre-crisis earnings growth and pricing multiples. Some will be tempted to pursue increased earnings through misguided expansion strategies rather than returning excess capital to investors.

Communicate with your members to protect them from other lenders who might solicit them with loans or other financial products not in the borrowers' best interest.

Before they are lost and resurrected only by Google, we remember here some of the credit unions that called to order in 2011 their last board meetings.

Was it 650,000 or 440,000 or less than 250,000 as claimed by the bankers? I don't know and don't really care. But as Frank J. Diekmann recently commented, we should wish to eat this kind of crow again.

In today's market the challenge to earn reasonable returns on savings and retirement funds have brought about a renewed interest in a time-tested benefit plan.