PayThink

How would the insurance industry hold up under the scrutiny of a nationwide consumer protection regulator? If the partisan conflicts swirling around Capitol Hill continue to comingle reform issues, that question might be more than just hypothetical. Bickering over healthcare reform could be pushing Congress towards mandating a federal insurance charter.

You can't just offer a service today; you have to do it well. In today's hypercompetitive market, a key strategy for success is design. How do you know if you have a design problem? Research: ask, listen, and learn.

Alternative capital, alternative future?

It's very likely that at your credit union it's time for a good old-fashioned conversation between your staff and your members.

No two credit unions offer exactly the same products and services, and no two do everything in exactly the same way. When credit unions merge, the members of one or both of the credit unions are asked to adjust to some changes. Even when the net effect is beneficial, at least some members will be unhappy with at least some of the changes. Effective management of that inevitable discontent shortens the time it takes for the members to regard themselves as contented participants in the continuing, merged entity.

Tired of hearing warnings that a new consumer financial products agency will hurt your local florist? Eliot Spitzer has a solution. He thinks you should complain to your pension fund or mutual fund about it.

The most powerful woman in banking, Heidi Miller of JPMorgan Chase & Co., was asked to weigh in this week on the succession speculation games playing out at several large banking companies.

Observers of financial regulatory reform have pronounced the effort to get new legislation passed this year pretty much dead. Even Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair doesn’t think it’s going to happen before the end of 2009. But Barney Frank, D-Mass., the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is pushing ahead with all of the urgency—and confidence—in the world. This week (shortened by the Columbus Day holiday Monday) could see the first legislation relating to the Obama administration’s regulatory reform proposals reported out of the Financial Services Committee. But there are probably quite a few people who say they’ll only believe it when it happens.</

If you place a frog in a kettle filled with water that is cool and pleasant, and then you gradually heat the kettle until it starts boiling, the frog will not become aware of the threat until it is too late. The frog's survival instincts are geared toward detecting sudden, not gradual changes.

Last] week, Credit Union Journal called attention to the important issue of resolving whether or not credit unions should be allowed to raise alternative capital ("Bid on Supplementary Capital Moves Forward," Sept. 28). The prohibition against alternative capital was put in place as part of the CU Membership Access Act of 1998 (CUMAA); and, currently, as the Journal rightly points out, only credit unions designated "low income" may raise it. I'm hopeful that the industry will work together to get the law changed so credit unions can issue member capital.