PayThink

Bank employees were among the 111 people charged — 86 of which are in custody today — in an alleged international identity theft ring based in Queens, N.Y.

Congress recently heard conflicting testimony from three professors and one think tank fellow on a simple, straightforward question: Should there be a guarantee for mortgage securities in the future?

I was at a summit with 300 other community bankers when we were startled by chants of "Make Banks Pay!" Occupy Wall Street and related groups see no solutions coming out of Washington they are attacking bankers as public enemy #1.

A suspected card thief in Ohio was caught when he allegedly used a stolen card with his personal loyalty card to buy gas.

Right now, every customer who uses a debit card could be using a credit card instead. And each one could also share in the increased interchange income.

Regulators' consent orders let mortgage servicers select the firms to review their actions. Allowing the banks to choose their own judge, jury, and jailer presents almost untenable conflicts of interest.

If the industry works seriously with the reasonable critics of its fee practices — the ones who stress disclosure — it can safely ignore the rabble-rousers.

For the vast majority of Americans, the role of the bank is to be there when the customer wants it to be there. Like the water company. Like the electric company.

Recent breaches at Epsilon and Citibank are evidence that criminals are not just going after financial information anymore; they are increasingly profiting from stealing all kinds of customer data, especially email addresses. By accessing personally identifiable information (PII) such as email addresses or social security numbers, thieves can sell the information on the black market or move forward with highly lucrative phishing or other scams on their own. In fact, according to analyst firm Frost and Sullivan, the global black market for email addresses and national ID numbers is now worth about $5 billion.

Several large banks are starting to charge customers a fee each month they use a debit card for purchases. The worst offender is Bank of America, which is implementing a $5 monthly fee.