PayThink

Leaders from the G20 countries are gathering in Pittsburgh today to try to coordinate their regulatory reform efforts, but another push to restructure global financial governance is also underway: The Dutch government and the World Legal Forum in The Hague are exploring the idea of creating an international financial court.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is appearing once again before the House Financial Services Committee to defend the Obama administration's proposals to reform the financial system.

Market analysts have finally figured out how to do what mortgage servicers had deemed impossible: They have begun to pinpoint defaulting borrowers who strategically walked away from their houses, as opposed to those who were forced out in foreclosure proceedings. Is it too soon to declare that this changes everything?

Just when it looked like the vitriol in the healthcare melee was going to completely overshadow any fireworks in the debate on regulatory restructuring, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce arrived with guns bursting. The Chamber recently launched a series of ads protesting the Obama administration’s proposed consumer financial products agency, claiming it would bear down on Your Local Baker or Butcher and prevent him from extending credit to customers. National Economic Council Director Larry Summers wasn’t far off the mark when he compared the Chamber’s campaign to the claim popular now among opponents of healthcare reform that the Obama administration is planning to set up “death panels.”

This week will be another in which Congress contemplates financial regulatory restructuring in earnest, with hearings in the House Financial Services, Agriculture and Small Business committees. Watch for new developments in Congress’ attitudes toward the Federal Reserve.

Since the advent of Check 21, check imaging solutions have continued to gain momentum among all financial institutions, especially as the Federal Reserve pares down its delivery system. As remote deposit capture for business takes hold in the marketplace, a new technology enters the space for consumers-consumer capture.

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions... and a poor interpretation of statistics. Case in point, the NCRC's latest report card on credit unions versus banks about "serving the underserved."

Now that we know how the Corporate Stabilization Fund is going to impact the expense side of credit union balance sheets, it is time to implement plans to offset these sky-high, but lower than expected premium expenses with additional revenues. But where might these additional revenues come from? Through increased access to your revenue-generating products and services.

If you think you're alone in borrowing a page from Warren G. Harding's presidential campaign and hoping for a "Return to Normalcy" at your credit union in 2010, consider the plight of conference and meeting planners.

The ability to recover quickly and completely from systems failures and disasters is perhaps more critical for credit unions and other financial institutions than for many other types of organizations.