PayThink

Is there a mixed message in having a conference about the underbanked in the middle of a large shopping mall?

How much is a picture of a smiling woman worth?

Foreclosure starts this year reached one million, the Center for Responsible Lending reported today.

Slate.com´s "The Big Money" blog posted a visual history of credit cards yesterday--It´s an entertaining little slideshow on the evolution of cards from their earliest, plainest state to the current diversity of species. Now there are cards for music fans; cards sporting alma maters and cards with cute cat pictures on them. Some have carried extra fees for customers. Will this visual smorgasbord thrive or sputter in the new, reformed world of credit cards? The answer depends, it seems, on the fees.

Congress is back this week and the regulatory restructuring debate should pick up some pace, though full committee hearings on the subject are still a couple of weeks away. But there will be plenty to keep Washington occupied, including another Tarp report, and some news on the economy from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

The competitive advantage for credit unions has always centered on the strong personal relationship, loyalty and high member satisfaction rates. Increasingly, in order to maintain high levels of member satisfaction, credit unions are implementing more online-based financial services.

Margins are slim. Delinquencies are up. Profitability is down. And we're all wondering when the next shoe will drop.

Perhaps it's time to get a whole lot more enthusiastic about plastic.

If one investor gets his way, the tradition of preferring general corporate know-how over specific sector expertise could take a blow. And in this case the turn of fashion may herald a major shakeup in the credit card business.

Bloggers were buzzing today after a report led some to believe that banks were lobbying for the ability to buy their own assets in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.´s Public Private Investment Partnership program.