PayThink

Check out Eliot Spitzer´s latest column for Slate.com, published today. In it he briefly outlines a problem with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York: its lack of independence from Wall Street and the absence of representatives of "the public" on its board. The column mostly focuses on the board´s structural problems, but at the end Spitzer rattles off a list of alternative potential board members whose participation could improve the New York Fed´s impartiality.

Let´s hope the Senate makes more progress on its credit card bill this week than it did last week. Insiders say work on the bill should actually be completed, and we at BankThink are of the opinion that the fewer amendments to it that have absolutely nothing to do with banking, the better.

What does it mean for a retailer to get out of the credit card business?

Editor's note: the following letter was written in response to "Bid Would Deter Credit Card Use" (May 12).

Get ready. Approximately six months from now credit unions across the country will eagerly engage in an annual CU tradition: wasting a lot of money, time and opportunity.

My business partner, John Gregoire, thinks that credit unions these days should concentrate on finding NEMO. Not the little fish in the movie. But rather their mostly middle class members who are Nervous, Embarrassed, Mad and Otherwise anxious.

Editor's note: the following letter was written in response to "Will CRA Be Forced On US?" (April 20).

There's been a lot of speculation around our industry that all the chaos in the economy in general, and banking in particular, should be good for credit unions. Confused and frustrated bank customers are looking for financial services options that make them feel secure, and people with good credit histories are looking for institutions willing to lend for necessary expenses such as college, to replace a car, etc.

Is the worst of the housing crisis at hand - or already behind us?

After months of fighting, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities Exchange Commission appear to have won a significant victory in their battle for more authority over credit derivatives. The new plan proposed by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to regulate derivatives, including the infamous credit-default swaps, gives oversight power to the CFTC and the SEC and largely ignores the Federal Reserve Board, which had been angling for a slice of power.